PTB's Writing Challenge 2013
by TypoKween
Summary: A long time ago... they used to be friends. AH, Eventual lemons.
1. 1 – Rocky Horizons

**Challenge Number/Title:** #1 – Rocky Horizons

**Date Posted: **January 31, 2013

**Fandom: **Twilight

**Rating: **M

**Genre: **AH, AU

**Content Descriptors: **Angst,Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing: **Edward/Bella

**Prompt: **picture.

-x-

"_Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards_."

― Søren Kierkegaard

-x-

**ONE.**

For once, it was a nice day in the northwest peninsula. The sun shone high in the sky, warming her cool skin as if she were sitting in front of a roaring fire. The unexpected heat made a once-dreary town come alive again after months of cloud overlay and torrential downpour.

But from where Bella Swan rested—80 feet above ground at the edge of one of the sandy rocks overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean in La Push, Washington—it felt wonderful. Camera in-hand, she crawled a few inches closer to the ledge in order to focus on some of the native children playing at the shore. This must be what God sees from his kingdom every day, she thought to herself. It was a spiritual feeling to be so high above everyone else, like she could see and learn things that others couldn't.

Trapped inside the back pocket of her slim blue jeans and buzzing against the underside of her brown leather satchel, her phone called for her attention. She ignored it and pulled the hood of her black sweater down, fixing the pompom on top of her beanie. As beautiful as it was from her vantage point over the ocean, she was growing restless.

If someone were to have asked her five years ago that she would be where she was now, she would have laughed in their face. She'd had a plan. It was a good plan—_great_ even. Get into NYU, graduate with honors as a criminal justice major, get into Quantico, become an FBI agent, catch dangerous criminals, become one of the top female FBI agents—_no_—top FBI agents of _all time_, win a congressional medal of honor, meet a great guy who accepted all aspects of her life, get married, have 2.5 kids and an academy-trained dog, write a book, get published, raise a family, write another book, grow old, be an awesome grandmother, retire and enjoy the rest of her days with her husband, traveling the world.

Those were goals she'd set for herself since the age of eight when she witnessed her off-duty father—Chief of Police, Charlie Swan—take down a would-be robber in a convenience store one random afternoon. Some girls wanted to be princesses or ballerinas, Bella wanted to be a cop like her father. Ambitions such as these usually caused arguments between her parents because Renee was against Charlie's encouraging Bella's "silly, dangerous dream".

When Bella was twelve years old, her father had picked her up from school early one day with red eyes and a sorrowful gaze. He'd sat her down and told her that Renee was gone and she wasn't coming back.

"_Like, with the angels?" Bella had asked softly. _

_It pained Charlie to have to shake his head and say, "No sweetheart. She went to stay with Grandma Marie."_

"_But she forgot me." Bella said in confusion._

_He'd pulled her into his arms and had held her tightly. "I think your mom forgot a lot of things, honey."_

None of that mattered now; if anything, it had only helped to solidify Bella's plans. From that day on, she'd had a one-track mind, and was lucky enough to find someone way before schedule who loved and accepted her. He was supportive and optimistic, and he never laughed at her when everyone else made a joke of her after her mother had left.

He was always there for her… until the day he wasn't.

Suddenly, Bella's camera lens found its focal point. Bright white smile, rustic tan skin, dark shaggy hair and powerfully-built arms wrapped around a tiny woman's waist. Bella zoomed into focus and began to snap image after image of the couple embracing and kissing. The wind swept the woman's hair across her face and the way he lifted a hand to brush it aside was her money shot.

_Ah, amore_.

She snapped pictures until the couple's heated make-out session grew too intense for Isabella Swan to handle. This was how she made her money—exposing cheating spouses, finding thieves, missing persons, cracking codes and encrypting documents… the list went on. She was _that _good.

Exhaling a long breath of air, Bella pulled at her blue scarf and sat upright to stretch before disassembling her camera to put away in her bag. Humming the tune to Carrie Underwood's "_Before he Cheats_", she pushed up to her feet and began the long hike back down to her truck. She planned to go home and shower, maybe have dinner, and call to check in with her dad.

_Then_ she'd let Leah Clearwater know her fiancée was a cheating liar.

Swinging open the door of her rusty red truck, her phone had begun its persistent buzzing again. Without checking to see who was calling, she answered with an exhausted, "_Swan_."

"Hello?" The caller answered callously. "Is this Isabella Swan?"

"The one and only," Bella replied, arching her back until she heard a faint cracking of bones. It felt marvelous.

"The same Isabella Swan who went to Forks High six years ago?" The masculine voice on the other end caused Bella pause.

"Uh, yeah? Who is this?" She felt the first signs of anxiety wrap its hands around her as familiarity rang in her ears.

"It doesn't matter who I am." He barked—much like he did in High School to anyone who dared defy him. "What matters is what you can do for me and you can start by meeting me in your office within the next twenty minutes."

She had to lean against the front end of her truck for balance as her knees buckled unexpectedly. He had to be kidding, it was unfathomable enough for him to have the gall to call her in the first place. But to start demanding her to comply with his every wish? It was as if nothing had changed.

"Go fuck yourself!" She snorted and ended the call.

Halfway through her drive home, her phone buzzed and this time she did check the number ID. It was Rosalie this time, thank God.

"You will never guess who had the balls to call me earlier." She shook her head at the memory of his callous tone.

"Royce King," Rose answered without hesitation.

Bella balked and almost missed her turn back into Forks. "How…?"

"Did I know? Well, it's easy. His lawyer is standing right in front of me. You might know him," she stated, with a dramatic pause. "Crazy sexy hair, wicked sharp jaw line, full luscious lips, and intense green eyes?"

Her heart stopped cold. No. _Please _no. She gulped and prayed her suspicions were wrong, but she knew she wasn't. Just like she knew he preferred Coke over all other soft drinks, or that he cried at the end of _The Notebook_ but swore it was allergies, or how soft his lips felt against her skin—or how it felt to have him rip out her heart and stomp on it in front of everyone. Yeah, she knew who it was at her office.

"Edward Cullen," she whispered.

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my Penny for showing me this challenge and encouraging me to keep going even when I get discouraged. BIG thank you to mariahajile and mauigirl60 for being amazing beta's! You two are so sweet and awesome! Thank you Kaia because, well, you'll always be my beta fish no matter what. ;)

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.

-x-


	2. 2 – The Empty Glass

**Challenge Number/Title:** #2 – The Empty Glass

**Date Posted:** February 3, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing:** Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** Imagine an empty glass. Write your entry around this empty glass.

-x-

_Hell is empty and all the devils are here. _

—William Shakespeare

-x-

**TWO.**

Clear. Empty. Glass.

With her chin rested atop her folded hands palm down on the kitchen table, Bella stared at the empty crystal tumbler before her in pure silence. The pungent burn of alcohol still trickled down her throat and coated her tongue like acid. She hated alcohol and never understood how addicts could stand to drink it excessively.

For a few weeks after her mother had left, her father had taken to a little drinking. Late at night, when he was sure Bella was asleep and unable to hear the clink of the bottle, he had repeatedly filled and refilled glass after glass. His silent weeping might as well have been shouted out in anguish, as it hurt Bella all the same. He had never talked about Renee again, and he had removed every trace of her from the house the week after she'd left.

The fog of intoxication slowly but surely sneaked up on Bella as she sat in a daze, just staring at the empty glass of vodka. Should she refill it and drink again? Should she set it in the sink and go to bed? Or should she just stay where she was and continuously berate herself for how she handled her first face-to-face with Edward Cullen in six years?

How else was she supposed to react? Sweet smiles and open armfs to a man who turned his back on her without even knowing all the facts? He'd been everything to her back then. Her family, her lover, her best friend… and in the course of one night—it'd all been erased.

The opening of a door upstairs made Bella's shoulders tense up and her ears perk. There could only be two outcomes. One would pull her from the table; the other would join and endure her torment. She wasn't sure which she preferred most as she listened for the pitter patter of tiny feet and, instead, heard the creak of the stairs as Rosalie made her way down to the kitchen.

"How long have you been down here?" Rose asked gently, as she pulled out a chair and mimicked Bella's pose on the table.

"Long enough to wonder if I'll be able to make it back up the stairs or pass out on the couch," she croaked, with a bitter taste on her tongue.

Rose sighed and sat upright before she reached for the glass, prompting Bella's hand to shoot out and grab onto her wrist.

"Don't." Her glassy eyes bore deep into her friend's sad violet irises. "I'm not done yet."

"It's empty, Bella." Rose pointed out the obvious. "Don't do this to yourself. It's not your fault, you did the right thing."

She laughed sourly into the table, pushing back an inch to grab the glass and stare down into it. "It's amazing how much has changed and how much hasn't," she said, with her eyes glued to the clear crystal in her hands. "I'm a completely different person and he's… exactly the same."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Rosalie pursed her lips and waited until Bella looked up to smirk. "He's _definitely _grown into his own."

"You're impossible." Bella chuckled and set the glass back down. "Apart from the evident changes, I mean." She leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table. "He still allows Royce to dictate his life."

Rose looked down at her lap and nodded slightly. "Sure glad I dodged _that _bullet."

"Speaking of bullets," Bella turned to the blonde on her left, "don't tell Charlie that he's back. I can only handle so much drama at one time. I don't want to even think about how this is all going to affect Kate."

The very thought had her standing from the table to pull the vodka out of the freezer again. Coming back to the table, she took the empty glass and prepared to fill it with the only thing she could think of to make her numb enough to sleep that night. But as she tipped the bottle down further and further without anything coming out, she realized that it, too, was empty. How had she not noticed that when she'd put it back just ten minutes earlier?

"Shit." She cursed her luck and slumped down into her chair.

Rose hugged her arms around herself for warmth. "Are you going to take the case?" she asked cautiously. "Because I totally get it if you don't want to. You don't owe either one of them a damned thing, Bella. What they did to you senior year was…" She shook her head. "I still can't believe the way that went down."

Bella's skin crawled at the very idea of having to relive that three-month period of absolute hell before graduation, followed by six-months of purgatory. Sometimes late at night, when Bella was in bed and everything was quiet, she had to get up and look into the room across the hall for a while. It was the _only _thing that mattered now. Not what Royce had done. Not what Edward had done.

But what _Bella_ had done.

"I'm gonna take the case." She slid the glass to the center of the table, staring at it as if it were a crystal ball.

"But… why?" Rose scooted closer and set a delicate hand on her fragile friend's shoulder. "Why subject yourself to that? Why subject _Kate_ to it? Are you prepared for what's going to happen when they find out about her?"

No, she wasn't. But it was time. She knew it was time, she felt it with every part of her being. That didn't make it any easier to swallow, or make her hands tremble any less. The fog from the alcohol had begun to fade and with the demise of each hazy cloud, Bella felt her resolve start to slip away.

"Because regardless of what happens next, Alice had always been nice to me. Even when everyone at school started to call me a whore and wrote _slut_ on my car or on my locker. She'd _always _defended me, even though she'd known we couldn't be friends anymore. If I owe this to anyone, it's her." Bella's voice grew strong as a new sense of purpose took over.

Rose nodded her head in agreement, she'd hoped Bella would see things this way as well. "Well, I got your back no matter what. And Emmett is an excellent use of muscle when you need someone to bulldoze those fuckers out of your office."

The two girls shared a small laugh together and Bella allowed Rose to pull her in for a tight hug. Of everything that had transgressed since high school, there was no denying the good. When they pulled apart, Rose left and Bella scooped up the empty glass and set it into the sink. Then she departed back up the stairs to peek inside the room across from her own.

The sweet little girl sleeping soundly in her bed was the reason Bella knew she'd get through anything. No matter what was to come, she'd always—_always_—make sure that her daughter would come first. Even if that mean packing her up and running away.

Even if that meant confronting Edward Cullen.

-x-

A/N: BIG thank you to mariahajile and mauigirl60 for being awesome possum beta's! Thanks to my biggest supporters Heather—my bestie; Kaia—my Prestige Worldwide co-partner (please forgive my impatience); and Jessa who's in the Hunger Games fandom but always listens to my rambles.

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.

-x-


	3. 3 – Word Play

**Challenge Number/Title:** #3 – Word Play

**Date Posted:** February 6, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing:** Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** Use all of the followings words in your entry at least once in any order: tomb, summit, cabbage, king.

-x-

_The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do. _

- John W Holt Jr.

-x-

**THREE.**

It was another late night at Swan & Hale P.I., but Bella refused to call it a day until she cracked the password on Alice Cullen's personal laptop. Who knew what she'd find inside? Any clue as to her current whereabouts was what Bella was hoping for. Any clue that would let her know that Alice had left voluntarily was what she wanted. The alternative was not something she could stomach.

Thinking back to earlier in the day when a carrier from the Cullen Estate dropped off a box filled with Alice's most personal possessions, she'd rolled her eyes. How typical for both Royce _and _Edward to avoid meeting face-to-face with her more than once. She couldn't really blame them, considering their first and last meeting three days earlier. After all, she _had _walked through the door, told them to go fuck themselves, and then proceeded to lock herself in her office for the remainder of the day.

She'd stormed past them so fast, she'd been unable to see them directly but she felt their eyes on her, especially Edward's. She could _still _feel his gaze burning into her, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. It was a scary feeling, to have an emotion she'd pushed back into the farthest recesses of her mind and heart come flying forward as if they'd never left. The intensity was overpowering. It'd resulted in one of the most fierce panic attacks she'd ever experienced; even worse than the ones she'd suffered from for weeks after her break-up with Edward.

If not for Rosalie, she would have never known — or cared for — the reason Edward or Royce were there. Now that she knew, however, she couldn't deny their business. They were paying three times the normal rate, and if Bella wanted to pay for Kate's tuition for St. Joseph's Elementary next fall, she could not afford to pass on the Cullens.

Startled by the sudden vibration from her phone, Bella saw the face across the screen and knew exactly who was calling. "Hey, baby girl," she answered cheerfully, despite her exhaustion. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"When are you coming home, Mommy?" The melancholy tone from her daughter shot a pain straight to her heart. "I can't sleep when you're not here."

"I'm sorry, baby. Mommy has to work but I'm coming home soon, okay? Put Auntie Rosie on the phone for Mommy." Bella slid the opposite end of a pen back and forth over the laptop keyboard in front of her while she waited for Rose's voice.

A shuffling took place and then, "Bring your ass home, woman. Your child needs to be tucked in, and it's _Thursday_."

Bella sucked a breath through her teeth with a wince. "Crap. I totally forgot it was Thursday."

Rosalie gasped in mock-offense. "How dare you forget story night, Bella Swan?"

"Can't Emmett do it?" Bella asked, full of hope. "She loves it when he does the funny voice."

"Emmett has to work really early tomorrow, so he went home. Besides, it's _your _turn for story night, Isabella Marie Swan."

"All right, all right. Stop with the full name-calling. Put her on. I'll just do it over the phone. Is she in bed? Just put me on speaker until she falls asleep." She dug her fingers in her hair and searched through her mind like a Rolodex for story ideas.

"Okay!" Rosalie shouted from somewhere away from the phone speaker. "We're ready!"

"Ready!" Kate cried in excitement, and guilt immediately seized hold over Bella for not being in the bed beside her daughter.

"Okay," she cleared her throat. "Once upon a time, in a land far off in the green fields of the Shire, there lived a Cabbage King named Ferdinand."

"Yay!" The sound of tiny hands clapping made Bella smile.

"Ferdinand had a daughter named Esmeralda, and within the week, her 18th birthday would be celebrated. All of the Shire would rejoice and come to the Cabbage Kingdom for a grand ball, where Esmeralda would be presented to Josiah Button, the summit's most praised Prince of Persia. But Ferdinand was weary, for rumor had spread of a rival prince named Victor Sword, who wanted to inherit the Cabbage King's throne. So Ferdinand sent a warning to Prince Josiah and called for a secret meeting at the Tomb of Fallen Cabbage Kings on the third sunrise…"

She continued on with her story until the small even breaths of a sleeping Kate filled her ear. Bella sat quietly for a moment with closed eyes and a clear mind. When things got tough or life got stressful, she could always count on the one thing in her life that was pure and good.

"'Night, baby girl. Mommy loves you," she whispered into the phone before hanging up and setting her phone gently on her desk. A deep sigh escaped her and lifting her hands to her tired eyes, she attempted to rub away the exhaustion.

But it wasn't working. She needed caffeine, and she knew it. Grabbing her keys, she planned to walk across the street to the Starbucks. Reaching for her office door, she paused and turned back to pocket her cell phone, just in case something happened to Kate or Rosalie.

The invention of the wireless phone was pure genius. She wished she'd thought of it first. Then she'd be rich and wouldn't have to take on cases from people she never wanted to see again. She rolled her eyes at herself and shook her thoughts clear. She didn't want to think about Edward unless absolutely necessary.

She patted her pockets in search of the building key as she exited her office and out into the receptionist area when the hairs on the back of her neck rose one by one. She froze where she stood and knew she wasn't alone.

"How long have you been sitting there?" she asked the man seated in a dark corner of room. "More important, _how _are you sitting there? I locked the front door hours ago."

He said nothing, did nothing. It was as if he was a statue.

She took an attentive step forward to bring herself out of her own shadow, gasping when the street lamp that filtered in through the window blinds glinted off the man's wild copper hair.

"How much did you hear?" she gulped and braced herself for what she'd been trying to avoid all week.

Finally, after a few tantalizing seconds, he moved out from the dark and stood over her like a tower. "Enough." His eyes bore into hers angrily.

She blinked in confusion and took a step backward in hopes of feeling less of the intensity radiating off his person. "Why are you here?" her voice shook against her will. "You do know this is considered breaking and entering?" She forced her posture to straighten up and her face to harden.

He shook his head slowly and moved in closer. "Did I?" His right hand held out a small key that dangled from an Angry Birds keychain.

Her eyes widened in surprised. "How— I— You…"

_Control yourself, Bella!_

She inwardly scolded herself as she took another step away from his invading closeness.

"Why did you do it?" He prowled forward until her back hit the adjacent wall, and she had nowhere else to go.

"Do what?" Her hands fisted at her sides defiantly.

He laughed bitterly at her fearful eyes and shaky arms. "Why are you cowering, Isabella? Where is the woman who told me to go fuck myself just three days ago?" His invitingly full lips pulled back into a dangerous smirk.

Her knees began to shake against her will as sweat gathered in her palms and her heart pounded in her chest. The last time she'd been this close to him, he was shouting hateful words in her face and tearing her heart in two.

"Tell me why you're here, or I'll be happy to bring her back for you," she sneered and fought to keep her eyes locked with his hard jade stare.

He set his hands onto the wall at either side of her face and leaned in closer. "There you are." He took her in slowly from bottom to top.

"Why are you here, Edward?" She spoke before thinking, and they both stiffened at the sound of his name from her lips.

She watched his expression soften for a split second before anger set back in. "Why do you _think_ I'm here?" he hissed in her face.

Bella felt her body's fight or flight kick in, but before she could react, Edward surged forward again to trap her against the wall.

"Could it possibly be because you're a heartless bitch who's been hiding a secret that's not hers to keep?" His hands bunched at either side of her head, as if he wanted to wrap them around her throat.

Bella flinched in surprise. She'd never seen Edward so angry, not even the night they broke up. "Back away from me… _now_," she warned him.

"Or what?" he challenged her. "I'm not leaving until you admit that you're a fucking liar!" he roared. "How could you?"

Lifting her hands, she shoved him hard against his chest. "Fuck you, asshole! I don't have to tell you anything!"

His rage skyrocketed before her eyes. "You don't have to tell me that I might have a fucking kid, Isabella? Do you hate me that much? Is what you did to me back then not enough, so you decided to push the knife in further by hiding this from me? My own _mother _knew, and I didn't. How the fuck did you swing that, huh? Tell me!" His hands latched onto her shoulders, shaking her violently. "How dare you! I loved you and you threw it in my face, Isabella!"

"Get off of me!" she screamed and kneed him in the groin so hard he fell to his knees breathless. "Your love was a lie, Edward. If it wasn't, you wouldn't have turned your back on me when I needed you the most!" Her entire body shook furiously with pent up emotion. "My father nearly went broke paying for legal services as a result of that night, and for what? A slap on the wrist thanks to _your _lawyer?" A sob caught in her throat during her tirade, causing her pause. "To this day, I will never forgive you for what you did."

She watched him wither and gasp on the floor in disgust while her own chest heaved and her hands shook down at her sides. His eyes and jaw clenched in pain as he groaned and cupped himself. Bella clamped down onto her tongue to keep from shouting anything she might regret later, like how he was a coward and for him to run back to his mother like he always did.

But the mention of Esme would be like opening Pandora's box.

With a grunt, Edward finally regained most of his strength and stood on weak legs. A thin sheen of sweat had formed over his brow and glistened in the dim light as he moved to the door.

But not before getting the last word.

"I'll see you in court, Isabella. Pray that the judge takes pity on you if the child is mine, because I will fight for full custody. You'll be lucky to see her on holidays with supervised visits."

With that he left, slamming the door so hard that the entire room rattled.

-x-

**A/N:** BIG thank you to **mariahajile** and **mauigirl60** for being awesome possum beta's! Thanks to my biggest supporters **Heather**—my bestie; **Kaia**—my Prestige Worldwide co-partner (please forgive my impatience); and **Jessa** who's in the Hunger Games fandom but always listens to my rambles.

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle.**

-x-


	4. 4 – Mother's Forgiveness

**Challenge Number/Title:** #4 – Mother's Forgiveness

**Date Posted: **February 7, 2013

**Fandom: **Twilight

**Rating: **M

**Genre: **AH, AU

**Content Descriptors: **Angst,Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing: **Edward/Bella

**Prompt: **Write the thoughts in a man's mind as he hurries to ask his mother's forgiveness.

-x-

_Bad men are full of repentance. _

-Aristotle

-x-

**FOUR.**

_How could she?_

It was a question that relentlessly continued to blare over and over inside Edward's head as he veered down the vacant streets of downtown Seattle. His anger boiled beneath his skin, searing his body like lava, and burning him from the inside out. Was there a sign over his head that said, "Fuck me over, please!" because he sure as hell was feeling as if there was.

He felt betrayed in the worst way. Not only by the woman he once thought he'd spend forever with, but by the one who had given life to him as well. If the anger weren't enough to end him, the guilt would surely fatally suffocate him soon. Regret was heavy on his shoulders as he grew closer to his parents' estate. The words he'd exchanged with his mother were ugly and disrespectful.

She'd hidden Bella's secret from him all this time. How had she done it? _Why _had she done it? What did Bella say to get his own mother on her side?

As much as it pained him to even think about those dark days—or be in the same room as his _former_ best friend—a small knee-jerk reaction inside of him wanted to run and ask Royce for advice. Despite the fact that until recently the two hadn't spoken to each other since high school. Not even when Alice—whom he'd disowned shortly after—announced her engagement to Royce. From that point on, Edward had refused to attend any event or holiday dinner Royce dared to grace with his presence.

His father was always too busy with work to notice, but Alice and his mother were charmed by Royce at first sight. It had always bothered him how his family seemed to embrace Royce almost more than Edward himself. But never had it troubled him quite as much as it had when he moved to New York. Edward had been sure his threats of not coming home would be enough for his family to refuse Royce, but instead it had backfired.

His mother had begged him to reconsider, and as much as it pained him to deny her, he did. Now, Alice was missing—creating full-blown chaos within his family—he had fought with his mother, shouting at her out of anger, and he'd threatened Bella without mercy. Everything in his life was falling apart.

Earlier that day when he'd been sitting in his father's study, looking over Alice's old bank and credit card statements. It was then that he found a joint savings account between his sister and mother addressed to the name 'Katelyn Rosalie Swan'.

His heart had dropped into his stomach and one phone call later, his suspicions had been confirmed.

The confrontation between himself and his mother was more of an interrogation, with his mother in the hot seat. He'd mercilessly fired questions at her that she'd had no answers to, and even when she could barely breathe through her sobbing, he'd attacked her with tactless insults. If his father hadn't returned home early from work, Edward could not guess how far he would have gone in his questioning. He'd grilled her like an opposing witness on the stand at one of his trials.

When Carlisle threw him out of the house, Edward drove straight to _Swan & Hale P.I. _for the second time in three days. It wasn't hard to get inside the locked building. He knew Bella's old habits of forgetting her keys or locking them inside—she'd always hidden a spare somewhere nearby.

He'd planned to storm inside, guns blazing, but the sound of her soft voice expressing love to her daughter and her imaginative storytelling sucked the anger from him like a vacuum. He'd fallen into a chair in the corner of the room and stayed there until she'd found him.

Jesus, she was beautiful. She'd _always_ been stunning in high school, but now she was a fully grown woman and she was sexy as fuck. Her breasts were fuller, hips curvier, and her lips called to him like a siren. It angered him how much his body responded to her without his mind's consent.

His hands clenched over the steering wheel before him as the memory of what her soft and lithe body felt like trembling beneath him. She was breathtaking when she'd come—mouth open in silence and chest arched into him, eyes wide and muscles tight, flushed skin and a tight wet pussy.

"_Fuck!_" He shouted and jerked the wheel quickly to the right when a car in the left lane slammed down onto their horn. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as the near accident and as his skin tingled and his heart settled down, he took the next exit.

He still could not fathom the realization that he could be a father—that there was a child living in Seattle for the past six years without his even knowing. That there was a good chance that the child was his. He'd left Forks two months before his high school's graduation, unable to stomach walking the halls among the students who stared at him with pity in their eyes. He stayed with his aunt and uncle in New York until he started Harvard in the fall. Soon after, his father accepted a job at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and his parents relocated.

Edward had never returned to Forks since.

It didn't matter anyhow, avoiding his hometown to escape Bella was impossible now that she'd moved to Seattle.

Pulling up the long, winding driveway in front of his parents' house, Edward killed the engine, sighing from emotional exhaustion. His meeting with Bella had been horrible; he hoped for a better outcome when he entered the house to beg his mother's forgiveness. She did not deserve his earlier behavior, nor did she need the stress on her health.

He still could not believe the way he'd treated his own mother, she had raised him to be better than that. She always had his side when his father went off on one of his tyrant lectures about Edward's future. The one who had played referee when his father threatened to disown his only son when Edward had come home one day, to tell them he'd switched his major from medicine to law. She was his biggest encouragement to continue through law school when things got tough.

But most of all, she was there when Bella had broken his heart.

He exited his rental slowly, trudging up the stone steps with tense muscles and a tight jaw. The door swung open before he could slip his key inside and the man on the other side was not welcomed. It flared the anger from Edward once again.

"What the fuck are _you_ doing here?" he snapped spitefully, shoving past Royce to get into the house.

"Your mother called me in a panic, what did you say to her?" His dark brows furrowed full of concern. "Your father is furious, by the way."

Edward forced his hands to unclench, for fear that he'd take a swing at the man standing two feet away from him. "What happens between me and my family is none of your business."

Royce blinked his blue eyes in stunned surprise. "This is my family, too, Edward. Or have you forgotten that I'm going to be your brother-in-law soon?"

"Are you fucking delusional? Alice is _missing_, Royce! You keep acting like she's going to walk through that door at any moment and everything will be as it was. Well, it won't, and do you know why? Because you're _not _marrying my sister. Do you hear me? It's not going to happen. Not now, not ever. Now get the fuck out of my house or I will throw you out myself!" Edward shouted loud enough to draw the attention of the other occupants of the house.

"Edward?" His mother's sniveling was heard nearby.

He spun around and rushed to her side, regret pooling in his eyes. "Mom, I'm so sorry for earlier today. I was out of line and—"

His words paused when she reached out to touch the side of his face. "You were upset," she whispered.

Edward shook his head shamefully. "I had no right to say what I did. Please forgive me, I have no excuse, I should never have taken out my anger on you."

"Oh, my boy." She pulled him to her and wrapped her arms around his waist, as he was far too tall to hold him as she did when he was a child. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have kept quiet, but I was worried for you and she—"

"Mother, please." Edward cut in suddenly to keep her from revealing too much and turned to look at Royce by the door. "Not here." He added softly for her ears only.

"Darling," Esme called to Royce, "why don't you and Edward wait in the sitting room while I go and get Carlisle. There is much to discuss."

Edward forced his mouth to remain closed, but it was a losing battle. "A topic for _family_ only." He enunciated and felt a moment of pleasure at the small wince from Royce.

"Yes, Edward." Esme spun around and wrapped her fingers around her son's wrist tightly. "A _family _matter of discussion."

"May I have a word with you in private, Mother?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Her eyes narrowed fiercely as she regarded him solemnly. "No, you may not. Royce is just as much a part of this family as you are. Now stop acting like a child and wait for me and your father before you say anything else." Her tone said everything her mouth did not.

_Do not tell Royce about Bella. _

He sighed and followed Royce into the next room where he headed straight for the mini-bar and filled a tumbler four fingers deep with his father's best cognac. He watched the gold liquid swirl in his glass and brought it up to nose to inhale its intense aroma of alcohol and the aged wooden barrel it matured in.

"Edward," Royce spoke after a prolonged silence.

"_Don't_." He warned his once best friend and slammed back his drink.

"Don't what?" Royce huffed and crossed his arms. "If this is how you're going to react every time you visit, Isabella—"

"I said _don't!_" Edward whirled around and thumped his glass down firmly onto the bar. "While you are here, you do not speak her name to me or anyone else." His gaze rose and fixed on Royce as a scowl took over his face. "If you need to talk about the case you speak to her through me. Are we clear?"

He watched Royce's eyes narrow and his jaw tighten before he stepped forward and over to join him at the bar. "I see your attitude when it comes to her has not waned. Why do you allow her to get to you, Edward? I never understood that. She's not worth it."

Edward's hands clenched at his sides. "Do you remember what happened the last time you and I spoke about Isabella?" His words were calm and that in itself was enough to cause Royce to back away slowly.

"After all this time, Edward?" He asked incredulously. "You still hold that over my head? You saw it with your own eyes! How can you still take her word over mine?"

Anger boiled and surged throughout Edward like a deadly poison. "Be very careful of what you say next, Royce."

"Oh, fuck you, Edward." Royce scoffed arrogantly. "She played you. Simple as that, get over it."

His temper hit the roof.

"Played _me?"_ He shouted with a hysterical laugh. "Oh no, my friend," he said mockingly, "she played us both."

Royce's brow wrinkled in confusion as Edward fought to regain control of his anger.

"One thing bothers me, though." He began a slow circle around Royce's still form. "How did you stay in Forks until graduation and not notice?"

"Notice what?" Royce rolled his eyes tiredly.

Edward paused at his right and scratched behind his ear absently as he contemplated his parting words for the night. He would not wait for his parents return, he has too much to mull over with himself. But he refused to be the only one to lose sleep that night.

"Notice what?" Royce repeated himself, aggravated by the same song and dance they'd played since high school. "Stop being so ominous and just fucking spit it out already."

"Do you remember when we were sixteen and you practically had a nervous breakdown at the thought of Rosalie possibly being pregnant?" Edward asked with a solemn face and regarded Royce's frigid reaction with some amusement. "Do you remember what you said to me afterward when the test came back negative?"

Royce swallowed loudly and stuck his clammy hands deep into his front pockets. "I said I was never going to go through that again."

"Well that's too bad, Royce, and do you know why?" He exhaled loudly through his nose. "Because Isabella has a child. Guess how old she is?"

His expression morphed into that of pure disgust and hatred. Disgust from the very idea that there was even a possibility the child was not his own, and hatred because Royce was the only other option. The only thing keeping his head on straight was the effect of the brandy he'd swallowed minutes before. The panic would set in once his anger ceased, he was sure of it. Which was why he needed to get as far away from Royce as possible within the next five minutes.

But Royce remained unaffected.

"Six years." Edward replied snidely. "According to what I've gathered, Katelyn Rosalie Swan was born in January. Now count back nine months from then and what day is her conception?"

Finally, Royce's calm broke and he wobbled into the nearest chair before his knees gave out.

A reaction much like Edward's earlier that evening. "Do you feel played yet?" he replied before walking out the door.

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my Penny for good luck and your amazing-awesome-fabulous notes. BIG thank you to **mariahajile** and **mauigirl60** for being my awesome beta's! Although, please forgive the last minute un-beta'd additions. Hehe. Thank you **Kaia** for your help when I bug you on AIM.

Thanks to all the readers/reviewers for your continued support. I will be updating this story once a week now that I'm all caught up with the January prompts. New prompts are posted on Saturdays, just so everyone knows.

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.

-x-


	5. 5 – The Limerick

**Challenge Number/Title:** #5 – The Limerick

**Date Posted: **February 22, 013

**Fandom: **Twilight

**Rating: **M

**Genre: **AH, AU

**Content Descriptors: **Angst,Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing: **Edward/Bella

**Prompt: **Your entry still needs to be 1000 words or more. It only needs to include at least one limerick. It does not need to be entirely in limerick format.

-x-

"_You can't blame someone for walking away if you didn't do anything to make them stay_."

― Unknown

-x-

**FIVE.**

It was yet another late night; her fingers hovered over the keys and she bit her lip in sheer frustration. She was never going to figure out Alice Cullen's laptop password. Short of resetting the password, which was not something Bella wanted to do, she had the option of extracting the hard drive. She flipped the laptop over to check the exact model of the machine and paused.

Taped to the battery on a purple post-it were five lines written in Alice's small and curly handwriting; five lines as simple as a children's poem but as complicated as a riddle.

_There once was a girl and her mate_  
_Who would share a peculiar fate_  
_But a sinister hand_  
_Ruined their plan_  
_And a baby was born on this date_

A sharp gasp cut through her quiet office as soon as she read the clue left behind. Had Alice known this whole time about Kate? Why hadn't she said anything before? Why would she use _this_ date as her password? So many questions filled her head as she turned the laptop back over and keyed in Kate's birthday. It took a few tries to get it done correctly, but ultimately, it was "December31" that granted her access into Alice's private thoughts.

-x-

"Has he tried to contact you?" Rose asked after a significant amount of silence was shared at the dinner table.

Bella scraped the last of her mashed potatoes around her plate before answering with a shake of her head. "No, and I don't expect _he_ will. If anything, it will be his lawyer."

Laughter from the living room pulled the smallest of smiles from Bella's otherwise sullen face. Emmett's boisterous voice was barely heard over Kate's excited screams. It pained Rosalie to see her best friend so stressed.

"He can't take her from you, Bella." Rose reached over and took her hand. "You tried to contact him three times. Once when you found out you were pregnant and twice after she was born. You got shot down each time. He's crazy if he thinks he can just come into your life after all this time and—"

"Hey!" Emmett bellowed, stumbling into the room with Kate on his shoulders.

Bella fought the urge to remind him how tall he was and how low the ceiling was. Rosalie saw the wrinkle between her eyes and stood up from the table to take the squealing child into her arms. Relief instantly washed over Bella, and with a small nod, she thanked her.

"All right," Emmett replied, after looking between the two seemingly telepathic women in front of him. "What's got Little B looking like someone ran over her dog?"

"What dog, Emmy?" Kate cried, with a slight tremor to her tone. "Mama, whose puppy died?"

"There's no puppy, sweetie!" Rosalie quickly reassured her. "Emmett doesn't know what he's talking about." Her eyes threw pointed daggers his way. "How about a popsicle for my favorite girl?"

Kate's innocent apple eyes sought out her mother. "Mama?"

"Yes, baby." Bella nodded, gathering the dishes from the table. "But only one!" she called over her shoulder. "And eat it slow, Katie. Last time, you got a brain freeze, remember?"

"Ah, man!" Emmett cringed dramatically in Kate's direction. "Dude! You survived a brain freeze? You're the bravest kid in the world!"

"I know!" Kate shouted and threw her fist in the air.

Bella watched Rose and Emmett fawn over her daughter, like they always did, and felt a stab of longing. Sometimes when she saw Kate with her two best friends, she wondered if it would have been better for her to grow up with two parents instead of one. Bella had grown up with just Charlie, but she'd always wondered if things would have been different had Renee stuck around.

"Bella…"

Plus, with Edward back in her life—or whatever the hell he was—she'd been thinking nonstop about her decisions in regard to her daughter. Her profession was definitely not ideal. She'd noticed in the past year that she'd sometimes get so engrossed in a case that she'd unintentionally neglect Kate. Did this give Edward a legit case against her? Could the fact that Bella had friends in not only high but also low—very low—places be a factor in Edward's defense?

"Bella."

For the past week, since her argument with Edward, she'd been unable to sleep or eat. Her dreams were filled with nightmares of the worst kind, and her appetite was nonexistent. Rose had to practically shove food down her throat to keep her going.

"Bella!" Rose bellowed out through cupped hands, causing Bella to swing around and raise a brow. "I said your name like ten times." She stared at Bella in concern. "Are you all right, sweetie? You look tired."

"I _am_ tired," Bella grunted, "but I have to check on a few things for our other cases before I go to bed."

"No, you don't." Rose stepped forward and set Kate down so she could follow Emmett upstairs. "I thought we agreed that you would focus on the Cullens, and I would take care of everything else. You're doing it again, Bella."

"Doing what?" she sighed.

"You're throwing yourself into work to avoid things you don't want to think about. You can't keep doing that, Bella. Think about Kate," she frowned.

"I know! I know! God, I know, okay? I just…" she trailed off, leaning against the counter. "I can't even concentrate right now. I've been unable to do anything right since seeing Edward, and the closest I've gotten in Alice's case is finding out the damned password on her laptop."

She purposely did not mention the riddle.

"You need a break." Rose smacked the counter beside Bella. "Like a mini-vacation of some sort."

"No, I don't…" Bella actually felt her lips purse into a bratty pout.

Everyone in the house was used to emotions getting carried away with two Swans in the house. Bella got it from her mother—or so Charlie liked to say—and passed it down to her own daughter. Rosalie dreaded the day Kate began to PMS.

"Why don't you take Kate and visit Charlie this weekend? He misses you guys like crazy and you haven't been down to see him in weeks, which is so unlike you, Bella. Plus, I think it would be really good for you and Kate to spend more time together."

"You're right. God, I'm a horrible daughter, and now I'm turning into a horrible mother!" She threw her hands out at her sides and shouted at the ceiling dramatically.

"And the Oscar for the most theatrical performance goes to…" Rosalie tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and lightly clapped her hands in fake applause.

Bella stuck out her tongue. "Alright, alright. I'll take the small fry and go visit my old man this weekend."

"There's my girl." Rose winked.

-x-

"Bella!"

She flew up in bed at the sound of her name and the relentless pounding on the front door downstairs.

"I know you're home! You open this goddamned door right now!" Fists started beating against the door once again.

Bella froze in bed.

That voice.

That _fucking_ voice.

That _fucking _asshole was at her door.

**How **_**dare**_** he! **

She jumped out of bed, yanking her robe from a hanger before rushing to check on a still fast-asleep Kate. In that moment, Bella had never been so glad for how deep a sleeper her daughter was. The girl could sleep through a hurricane. Grabbing her phone, Bella's fingers typed out a quick text as she hurried downstairs before her unwanted visitor made any more noise. Just as she hit 'send' and slipped the phone into the pocket of her robe, the loud pounding resumed.

"Open the fu—"

"Keep your fucking voice down! You almost woke up my daughter!" she hissed, yanking the door open angrily. "What do you want?" she whisper-shouted.

His clouded vision took her in from top to bottom as he laughed darkly in response, swaying on his feet. "_Your_ daughter?" he snorted. "Don't you mean _our _daughter?" His lips lifted at the corner into one of his famous smirks.

Hate surged through her veins, and she shoved him forward as she charged outside and shut the door behind her. "You listen here and listen good, you disgusting piece of shit. Kate is not and will _never _be your daughter. Do you hear me?"

His baleful gaze narrowed. "You ruin everything you touch. Do you know that?"

She gulped and did not acknowledge his words; instead, replying with, "Go home, Royce."

"And if I don't?" He stepped in closer, and she smelled the whiskey on his breath. "Don't act like this isn't what you've wanted this whole time." He smiled down at her and brushed a lock of hair from her face. "Did you miss me, Isabella? Six years is a long time to forget what we had. Trust me, I know."

Vomit bubbled in her gut. "You're delusional," she responded incredulously. "No amount of time will ever change that. Now get the hell off my property, or I'll call the cops!" she warned him.

Another haughty laugh escaped his lips. "Oh, but your daddy's not here to save you now, Ms. Swan. Try again." He leaned in closer so that he hovered over her like a predator trapping its prey.

Bella felt the hairs on her body rise. "If you touch me, I will knock your fucking teeth out! I'm not that scared little girl from high school anymore!"

Royce threw his head back, howling in laughter before he sobered quickly, and brought his face to hers. "Oh, but she was so fun." With a wolfish grin, he lifted a hand as if to touch her face. "Come on now, baby. We used to have so much fun in high school, remember? You would wear those tight jeans and tiny t-shirts, and I would—"

"Shut up!" she screamed, her entire body repulsed and trembling with a fear she'd sworn never to feel again. "I hate you!" she said through gritted teeth and blurry eyes. "You always took what you wanted, and you always wanted what you could never have."

"Oh, Bella." He took her chin in his hand firmly. "We both know you were never something I couldn't have." He chuckled at the fire in her eyes. "You should be thankful for the pity scraps I fed you, darling. Because it's all you're worth. No one's ever really wanted you, you know. Edward didn't want you. I didn't want you. Hell, even your _mother_ didn't want you."

Her hand suddenly flew out and slapped against the side of his face so fast his head flew to his right. He touched his cheek in shock, looking down at Bella with wide eyes. His lip held a drop of blood from her hit, and she watched him lick it away slowly. Her heart was pounding, her palms were damp, her knees were shaky. She wished she hadn't told Rose to stay with Emmett.

"You don't know _anything_," she whispered, painfully aware of the advantage he now had on her that he'd exposed one of her weakest spots.

He rolled his bloodshot eyes. "And I don't care to, either. You know what else I don't care about? That fucking _child _of yours. I don't want to hear another word about her. She's not mine. She's not Edward's. She's the result of some one-night stand you'd had shortly after your break-up. Do you understand me, Bella? I will not have your poison in my family again." He sneered in her face.

Instinct finally pushed through and sent Bella's knee upward the same way it had that night in her office with Edward. Only this time, she didn't hold anything back and used all of her strength. When Royce hit the ground cradling his balls, Bella stood over him and shook her head.

"Look at you," she taunted, "drunk and pathetic and withering at my feet. I told you I wasn't that girl from high school anymore. Now get the fuck off my property, or I'll show you what else has changed since then!"

He sputtered on the ground, unable to speak intelligently.

She knelt down beside him and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, Roy… She's not yours."

Headlights flashed across the front of her house as a sleek, black Mercedes flew up the driveway and almost onto her front lawn. Before she could react, the driver's side door was flung open and Edward was shouting her name. His face was murderous as he glared at the pile on her front porch. Her logical instinct was to back away, but for some odd reason, she felt compelled to push forward and stop him at the steps.

"Wait." She pressed her hands to his chest and sucked in a quick gasp of air upon the intimate contact. "Kate's asleep. Please don't. Just get him out of here."

Edward frowned down at her and swallowed hard, unable to speak. Her mouth fell open slightly right then, a small pant fleeing from her lips and causing her chest to rise and fall against his. He was even harder than before, chest taut and body built like a pro athlete. No longer was he the tall and angular teenage boy with the sharp jaw and soulful eyes.

"How long has he been here?" His voice was eerily calm as he gently removed her hands from him and stepped away, his eyes trained on Royce.

She felt his warmth leave her instantly, and she shivered in the cold. "I can't remember." She shrugged and curled her arms around herself impulsively, as if to protect herself against the two men on her doorstep. The uneasy feeling in her stomach made her swallow the urge to be sick. The situation was too familiar—_far_ too familiar.

"Are you okay?" Edward's unexpected question caused Bella to jump in surprise and Edward's hands to grab onto her waist for balance. "Did he hurt you?" he asked, as his hands slid down her sides to her hips and back upward to see for himself.

An atrocious betrayal from her body to her heart happened just then. Against her better judgment, she sighed in content and leaned into his touch instead of away. "I'm okay," she whispered huskily.

His fingers dug into her waist. "What did he say to you?" His breath was at her ear, hot and gliding down her neck.

_What was happening to her?! _

"What do you care?" she scowled in confusion. "Just the other day, you treated me like a piece of dirt on your shoe. Don't try to be a gentleman now. It's far too late. Besides, I know it was you who sent him here. You _always _sent _him _to do your dirty work." Her arms shakily pushed him away from her. "I guess some things don't change."

"No," he replied spitefully. "I suppose they don't. You still jump to every conclusion that casts me as the bad guy. You may not be that same girl I'd once thought I'd known, Isabella, but you sure as hell hold onto her closely."

The two stared at each other, wordlessly, silently as rain began pelting against the roof, sprinkling the steps behind him. In his eyes, she could see that he still held a power over her like no other. Warmth covered her, like a towel straight from the dryer. He had been her sun once, and now, standing there before him, she hated to admit that being in such close proximity was the most comfort she'd felt in years.

But it was a false comfort, and she wouldn't allow herself to fall victim to it. "Gee, I wonder why," she mumbled under her breath. Just seeing him again after so long was like going back in time. How could old habits not resurface?

"What was that?" he tested her.

"Nothing." She forced her eyes away from his face. "It's nice to see you clean up one of your own messes for once."

He growled suddenly and then grabbed hold of her upper arm.

"Let go of me." She wrenched away from his hold.

"I'm trying to be civil, but you are testing my resolve to its limit. Why do you insist on challenging me at every turn, Isabella?"

"You can't take her from me." Bella's words were out before the thought processed, and she scowled at the confusion that flashed across his face.

"Excuse me?" He shook his head in irritation, running a hand through his wild hair.

Her solid front of bravery began to waver. "You had your chance, Edward. You had _three _of them, and you shot me down each time." She paused to breathe deeply, lest she begin to give into the urge to cry. "So, why now?" Her voice caught on the last word.

He shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts. Nothing she was saying made any sense to him, and it was irritating. Edward prided himself on always being just one step ahead of everyone else—but, as always, Bella threw him off kilter. "Can we please not do this right now?" he sighed after a long period of silence. "Look, I spoke out of anger the other day, alright? I didn't mean what I said when I threatened you like that."

She hated the lump that had formed in her throat and the moisture that gathered behind her lashes. "You know what, Edward? I wish for once you would say at least one thing that you actually _do_ mean."

Her words hit him hard, forcing him to look away. "I'll take him home. It's my fault he got drunk tonight. I taunted him and…" He broke off, shaking his head, and moved to wake Royce as if he hadn't spoken.

Bella watched him help Royce into the backseat and told her he'd pick up the silver Lexus that was in her driveway the next day. He avoided all eye contact as he spoke, using a tone that made her feel as if he was speaking to an employee, not the mother of his child; the girl he used to hold tightly from behind at pep rallies, randomly kissing her cheek, chin, neck, and then whispering in her ear about how much he loved her. He had completely disconnected himself from the situation, from _her_.

She hated how much it hurt, even after all this time.

It made something inside of her snap and she raced down from her porch and into the rain. "Edward!" she called out, rushing over to his side of the car. Completely soaked through to her bones, she shivered and reached out to grasp his door before it shut.

Her unexpected appearance at his side caught him off guard long enough to rinse the scowl from his face. His mouth uncurled and his eyes softened, as his previously careless façade melted away. For just a second, she had thought he might get out and pull her into his arms, as he would have done so many years ago. His first instincts would have been to comfort her. Now they were to shove her away.

"I know you hate me," she said, trembling in the cold. "But respect me enough not to send anyone else to harass me at the home where my child lives."

Sheer astonishment crossed his features as her statement brought him out of the car and into the rain, as well. His tall figure loomed over her, intimidating her to take a step back despite her usual fearless character. No one could ever bring out the weak side of Bella like Edward could.

"Jesus, Isabella." He frowned at her in disappointment. "Do you honestly think I would do something like that to you?"

"I don't know what to expect from you anymore." Her arms crossed over her chest defensively as her shoulders hunched in an attempt to keep warm. "You're the one who liked to hurt me every chance you got."

His hand shot out to cradle the back of her head, bringing her forward so that they were nearly nose-to-nose. "Let's get one thing straight here," he growled in her face. "You broke _my _heart, Isabella. I didn't break yours." He released her and swiftly locked himself inside the car.

She stood frozen in disbelief, anger boiling beneath her skin, heart straining to remain inside her chest, lungs on the brink of exploding.

"Get inside the house. You're going to catch pneumonia for Christ's sake," he snapped at her through a crack in his window. "Go!" he shouted heatedly, a complete contrast to his previous expressive confession.

She flinched from his firm tone and bit her tongue to keep from barking back at him. He was right. She was fucking freezing outside in the pouring rain. Her clothes were plastered to her body, chafing her skin mercilessly. She felt his eyes on her the entire way back to her house. Only when she had finally shut the door behind her did she see her front room lose its brightness from the receding headlights of Edward's car.

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my Penny for being the bestest bestie ever and always giving me amazing advice. BIG thank you to mariahajile and mauigirl60 for being amazing beta's—they catch all my mistakes!

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.

-x-


	6. 6 – The Inanimate Object

**Challenge Number/Title:** #6 – The Inanimate Object

**Date Posted:** February 28, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing:** Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** Write from the Point of View of a piece of furniture. Your entry should be in first person POV. You can choose any piece of furniture from any room.

-x-

"_The_ _weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong_."

― Mahatma Gandhi

-x-

**SIX.**

I see and hear everything, and sometimes, I even _feel _it. She leans on me when she's down and I'm there to hold her upright when she feels as though she can't stand. I've been a hiding place for not only her but for the little one, too. I've been here for the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'll always be here… for as long as she'll have me.

I hold her secrets. I listen to her talk. I let her cry on me, kick me, eat on me, spill on me, sit on me, work on me, draw on me… because that's what office desks do.

"No, Dad. That's fine. Again, I'm so sor—" Bella sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "It's just for a few days. I have a lot going on here and I thought I could get away for a little bit, but then this new stuff came up and…" She pauses to listen to her father intently. Her teeth pull her bottom lip between them and chew nervously—a trait I've come to know means she's got far too much on her mind.

"I will. Yeah, Rose should be there soon. She left at, like, eight this morning... no, Dad… I don't need any money. I won't have to work so late after I finish this case, okay? I promise… Dad, I can't… you know I can't discuss that with you. You're an officer of the law. You should know better… no, you don't get special privileges because you're my father!" she giggles, something I haven't heard from her in days.

"I love you, too… okay… yeah, I will. You, too… yeah, but don't let Jake take her out on the boat again. She got sick last time… Dad! She's six, why does she need to learn how to live on her own in the wilderness unless she's going to be the next contestant on Survivor?" she snorts and shakes her head in amusement. I like this look on her; she looks relaxed. She deserves it. "Okaaay, I gotta go now. I have a meeting this afternoon so I have to get everything ready… oh, would you? Yes, please! Tell Sue I love her and I owe her… okay. Love you, too. Bye, Dad."

She hangs up, sets her elbows over me, and then rests her chin in her hands. "I just want this to be over," her whisper is soft. "Please just let me find you, Alice. Alive and well. Then I can sleep easier at night and go back to pretending you and your family don't exist."

Ah, yes. The Cullens. I've heard a lot about them over the past few years that I've been settled in this room with Bella. What I find interesting is that a month before they had come walking through the door, Kate had been asking about them…

"_Mama, who are the Cullens?" Kate's long lashes blinked up at her mother._

_Bella looked up from the papers on top of me, and I could literally see the color drain from her face. "Who—how—why are you asking, baby?" Her hands shook slightly as she set aside her folders and motioned her daughter forward._

"_I can't tell you." Kate's cheeks flushed as she played with her hands in her lap. _

_Her mother reached out and gently lifted Kate's chin. "You can tell Mama anything. You know that." _

"_But I pinky-promised," she whispered conspiringly. _

"_Silly girl," Bella ruffled her hair. "Those rules don't count against Mommy. You can tell me." _

_But Kate shook her head slowly. "Nuh uh."_

"_Katie…" _

"_But you said never to break a pinky-promise, Mama. And I promised Auntie—" Her little hands flew to cover her own mouth. _

_Bella's face tensed. "Damn it, Rosalie," she cursed under her breath. _

"_Are you mad at me?" Kate's eyes began to water. _

_Her mother softened and opened her arms so Kate could jump into her lap. "I could never be mad at you, honey. Remember what I said about your daddy?" she whispered into the girl's ear. _

_Kate nodded. "He's not ready for me, yet." _

"_Why not?" Bella kissed her daughter's cheek. _

"_Because he… Um…" she paused. _

_Bella's arms squeezed tighter. "He's working hard to prepare for a life with you, baby. He wants only the best for you, and to do that, he has to do a bunch of other things first." _

"_But when is he going to be done?" Kate sniffled, and the sound chipped away at Bella's already cracked heart. _

"_I don't know, baby. But I do know that he loves you very much and wishes he could be with you." Her shoulders shook as she held in her cries. _

_"But what if he forgets me?" Kate said with worry._

_Bella's voice shook as she said, "I think your dad may forget a lot of things, honey. But I promise not to let him forget you."_

_I wished then that I was able to comfort both of them. _

-x-

It's later in the day when Bella finally shoots up from her seat with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. She looks like she's seen a ghost. Or a spider. I hope it's not a spider. Last time she saw one she screamed and jumped on top of me. She was wearing heels that day. _Ouch. _

"Oh, Alice…" I hear her whisper. "What were you up to?" She quickly sits back down and begins to type at the keyboard on the laptop in front of her.

I wish I could read the screen. That's one of the disadvantages of being down here. At least she hasn't spilled hot coffee on me today. That's always a plus.

She bites her lip before she reaches out for her cell phone. "Just do it, Bella." I watch as she chastises herself and smacks the device against her forehead. "Don't be a coward," she whispers.

If I could laugh, I would. Bella Swan is the opposite of a coward. I've been witness to her interrogations during a case. She's; she's ruthless. I've seen her threaten men twice her size, blackmail politicians, bribe the Irish mob, then turn around and offer the same to their enemy, argue with the Chief of Seattle Police to the point where he had to leave the room to calm down, and I've even seen her taser a perp—a high-leveled crime veteran.

So what has her so nervous?

"Hey, it's me." Bella's on the phone now. "No, I'm not calling because of last night. I found something on your sister's computer that I want you to see… I don't care about that right now, Edward! Just get here!"

I can hear a low baritone on the other line, but I can't decipher exactly what it is he's saying. All I know is that it makes Bella roll her eyes.

"I am in no way ready for that conversation. When I'm ready to discuss Kate with you, you'll know. Until then, we are strictly business." The fire in her eyes is intense. "No, that's fine. I don't care if you eat your lunch here… no, I haven't… because I've been busy… I don't care what you do, Edward. I'm fine either way…" She sighs in exasperation. "Yes, it's still the same… no, I still don't like tomatoes on my sandwiches… thank you… see you in a bit." She hangs up and shakes her head while mumbling to herself about how stubborn Edward is.

But there is no missing the slight smile on her face.

-x-

They share a very awkward and silent lunch together on my surface. The only sounds heard are the crinkling of sandwich wrappers, the sipping of drinks through a straw, and long-held breath exhales. I wish I had a voice so I could tell them how ridiculous they're being.

I've been around for a while. So long, in fact, that I'm considered an antique. I was a lucky buy for Ms. Swan the day she walked into the estate sale I was being sold at. My previous owner, Mr. Heathcliff, was a widowed headstrong businessman with spoiled rotten children. The moment he passed away, they put everything up for auction in order to gather whatever money they could.

So with that in mind, I know how people act when they're emotional and when they're uncomfortable. Mr. Cullen and Ms. Swan are the epitome of uncomfortable. I know they have a history. I don't know the specifics, but whatever it is… it can't be _that _bad, can it?

"So, are you ready to tell me why you called me here?" Mr. Cullen asks, once he's cleaned up after himself and gathered both his and Bella's trash to throw out.

She clears her throat and nods, opening the laptop in front of her and motioning him closer. "Your sister pretty much wiped out everything." A few clicks later she turns the computer around for him to take a good look. "Except for a few things, like personal pictures, a few saved online receipts from random clothing websites… oh, and here," she types and then points at the screen. "She has a bunch of PDFs labeled by month and year."

"What's in them?" he asks, and brings a chair over to sit beside her.

His close proximity causes her a longer than normal pause. "I, uh…" She clears her throat and runs a hand through her hair exasperatedly. "I don't know. They're all password-protected."

Mr. Cullen slumps in his seat from defeat. "I was so sure this was all some sort of misunderstanding on my mother's part. I mean, Alice does shit like this all the time for attention. But she's never been gone for this long."

Bella's grimace makes her look like she has a serious case of indigestion. My guess? She doesn't know how to handle Mr. Cullen's distress. She's not good with emotions—especially when it comes to other people's. She usually leaves the tears for Rosalie to handle.

"With every passing day, I find out something about my sister that makes me feel like I never knew her at all. It's like she's a stranger, and this right here is all just all part of some random court case I'm working on. Gather information, piece together the clues…" He pauses to set his elbows down on my surface, then rests his head in his hands. "But this time, it's my fucking _sister_."

It's at this point where I see an unusual change in the hard exterior Bella's had in place for as long as I've known her. It starts to crack. Her eyes watch him with sympathy, and I can see she wants to comfort him. But I know her well enough to know that she won't. The only affection I ever really see from her is when she's with Kate or Rosalie.

"Look, Edward," she says, shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts. "It's my understanding that it's been a while since you and Alice have had any sort of real relationship with each other. I don't know whose fault that is, and it's between you and her. But don't blame yourself for her disappearance."

He snorts without lifting his head from his hands. "That's really funny coming from you."

"Which makes it all the more true." Bella looks over his shoulder to stare out her office window. "I've asked around all her usual hangouts and they all say the same thing. Her usual bubbly behavior changed a few weeks ago after her 22nd birthday. She stopped wanting to go out with her friends, devoted her time to charities that had connections to youth groups in the city, and had your father pull strings for her to gain an internship at the Seattle Courthouse. Everyone thought she was hoping to fall into your footsteps."

Mr. Cullen says nothing, just stares at Bella and listens to her closely, as if she holds the answers to every secret ever told. People's eyes are very expressive, and as the center of all conversations held in this office, I know when people are lying or telling the truth. I've seen terror and agony, hate and sympathy. Mr. Cullen… has hope.

"It's very clear to me that she had an agenda," she continues. "My highest priority right now is to find out what that was and if it's the reason she's missing."

When she finally pulls her gaze from outside and turns to him, a small gasp escapes her lips. He's staring right at her, and she can't seem to move away from his intense gaze. Even I can see that there is much unresolved tension between them, sexual or emotional? My guess? Both.

Like I've said before, I've seen it all. Whether I wanted to or not, unfortunately.

Finally, Mr. Cullen is able to tear his eyes away from her and down at his feet. "I never thanked you for agreeing to help us. I was shocked when my dad gave me your card and said to contact you."

She nods. "Yeah, we crossed paths about a year or so ago and had lunch. I've always admired your father. He was the only one who…" She bites her lip and closes her eyes.

"He's always been the most forgiving in the family," Mr. Cullen mutters, more to himself than to Bella.

"Anyway," she goes on as if he hasn't spoken. "We got to talking about what I've been up to, and imagine my surprise that he hadn't a single clue about Kate."

"Why would he?" Mr. Cullen snaps suddenly. "_I _just barely found out about it, for Christ's sake."

"Don't," Bella warns him.

If he were smart? He'd listen.

"Don't what? Don't ask why you decided to hide my child from me?" he scoffs incredulously.

Okay, not smart at all.

Bella laughs softly but not in amusement. It's a bitter sound, one that tells me she's about to be the Bella I know and not this shadow of a girl she's been since he entered her office.

"You know what, Edward? I'm so sick of this." She shoves back from me and moves to one of her file cabinets. When she finds what she's looking for, she slaps it down in front of him. "Rose said I was stupid to keep copies of these, but I knew I would need them one day. I don't know what your game plan is, but you will not take my daughter from me."

"What _is_ this?" he grimaces at the pile in front of him.

"Proof that I tried to contact you when I found out I was pregnant and after Kate was born." Her mouth trembles while she swallows what looks like a sour taste in her mouth. "I sent you three personal letters telling you about your daughter. You sent each one of them back without opening."

"How can I send them back when I've never fucking seen them before today?" His anger skyrockets from zero to one hundred, and he's up on his feet in no time at all.

Whoa, slow it down, sir. It's times like these I hate not having arms. All I've got are four useless legs. Fortunately, I know Bella can fend for herself.

"Because they were certified mail, you asshole! You even signed the receipts!" She snatches one up and throws it at his face.

He furiously smacks the ball of paper away from his face. "You're a liar. I would _never _have ignored a letter from you. I spent a whole fucking _year _hoping and praying you _would _try to contact me!"

"Really?" she snorts. "Well, your actions contradict what you're saying. I tried calling, and you had changed your number. I tried writing and you sent it back. I even tried to talk to you through your mother, and do you know what she did?"

His face seems to lose all color just then.

"She apologized for your behavior and then shoved a check in my face. She said for me to use the money for whatever decision I decided to make." The tremor in her voice is a blatant show of weakness, one that I am beyond shocked to see her show anyone—let alone him. "Do you know what that did to me?" she shouts at him, loud enough to make him cringe. "She basically insinuated for me to have an abortion! I was eighteen-years-old, Edward! I was _terrified_ and that was all on top of the fact that I'd just had my heart broken by the boy I loved."

"My mother would have told me if she had spoken to you." He frowns in what looks like uncertainty. "There you go again, doing your best to manipulate me into—"

"Check the addresses on the damn letters, Edward! I sent them to you in New York. I had to beg Alice for weeks to tell me where you were without revealing _why _I needed to talk to you. I sent the first letter to your house and that was when your mother called me to relay your message. The second letter was sent to your New York address just after Kate was born." Her voice begins to shake as tears gather in her eyes. "This time, you sent it back to me without opening." She picks up one of the letters and points to a specific spot. "Here is your signature, Mr. Cullen—that's _your _handwriting."

His eyes widen as realization starts to break through his thick head. His hands slap over the scattered papers in front of him, picking one up and quickly reaching for another.

During this, Bella backs away and wipes at her eyes quickly. "I tried one more time, a little before Kate's first birthday. Rosalie was the one who told me you were still staying with your godparents in New York. When that one came back unopened with your signature on the delivery receipt, I knew that you honestly didn't care about me or Kate… and it—_you_—destroyed me."

"That's not true," he replies through gritted teeth, face flushed and jaw tense. "I knew nothing about any of this!" He flies up to face off with Bella. "I went to New York to stay with my aunt and uncle, because I was _devastated_ by what you did!"

"By what _I _did?" she cries. "What about what _you _did? You tossed me aside without talking to me first! You wouldn't even let me explain!"

"You _slept_ with my _best friend_!" he roars down at her, causing her to cringe but not cower.

Instead, she screams, "He _raped _me!"

Edward stumbles back a few steps and shakes his head. "So, you're still going with that story then?" he chokes back a bitter laugh. "Because it sure as hell looked consensual to me."

"Fuck you, Edward Cullen!" she sobs, tears running down the sides of her face. "It was dark and his hand was pressed over my mouth! Those weren't moans of pleasure. They were muffled screams! I hate you for taking his side. I hate you for not having enough faith in me. I hate you for leaving me to deal with all of this by myself. And most of all, I hate that you can just walk back into my life and make everything I've worked so hard for feel like nothing!"

It's interesting to see Mr. Cullen's face morph from anger to astonishment, only to be consumed overall by agonized sadness. His hands shake violently at his sides. He's barely able to lift one to force through his hair. He's completely void of words, a first in the small amount of time I've seen him in this office.

"No." He shakes his head incredulously, refusing to look Bella in the face. "_No_—no! That is _not _what happened! You were acting so fucking weird that night! When I asked you what was wrong, you said we needed to talk. I asked if you were going to break up with me and you went completely insane!"

"_I _went insane?" she laughs at him. "You're the one who automatically assumed I was going to break up with you! Ever since you got into Harvard and I didn't! You were convinced I was going to end our relationship!"

"How else was I supposed to react?" He throws his arms out at his sides, hair in a crazy disarray from his hands. "For _weeks_ after I got my acceptance letter, you started distancing yourself from me little by little. You avoided my calls, cancelled our dates, and even pretended to be sick that night of the party and tried to get out of coming! It was _my _celebration party for getting into Harvard. It was important to me and you blew me off! Alice had to beg you to come. She literally dragged you to our house, and you stayed in my room the entire fucking night!" His face is so red, I fear for his blood pressure. "And what do I see when I come up to check on you?" He shakes his head. "No wonder you stayed up there for so long."

"_I stayed in there, because I was nauseated and _**pregnant,**_ you stupid, arrogant, selfish bastard!_" She shrieks so loudly that he flinches and takes a step back, in shock at her outburst. "I fell asleep and woke up with Royce all over me! I even threw up on him from all the struggling and humiliation!"

At this, Mr. Cullen sucks in a quick breath in alarm. "You were drunk! I saw the empty bottle, Bella!"

"God, you are so _stubborn!_" Her cries grow louder as she teeters between losing her sanity and keeping control of herself. "You have a reason for everything, don't you? Because I'm a lying bitch, right? Everything out of my mouth is a lie?" She quickly swipes away her tears, but more fall in their wake. "Yes, after you got your letter, I was worried about what it would mean for you and me. Yes, I avoided you while I tried to think things over. But when I said I was sick that night, I was telling the truth. I was three weeks pregnant by then, and I was terrified to even say it out loud. I didn't know what to do, and I _needed _you, Edward. I _needed _you so badly, and you… you…" She's unable to finish, slumping down into her chair as she leans over me and cries into her hands.

"God!" She slams a fist down onto me. I take the brunt of her anger, because it's what I do. "Nothing I say or do means _anything _to you! I'm so tired of trying to defend myself!" She sobs harder with trembling shoulders and limp hair curtaining around her face. Tears gather like rivers, rolling down her cheeks, dropping onto my surface.

Her spirit is broken. It's almost too much to watch. I'm glad that I can be here for her, to stabilize her in the smallest of ways.

"I don't…" Mr. Cullen at least has the decency to appear bewildered and somewhat sympathetic. His fingers dive into his hair and yank at its roots mercilessly. "I didn't know any of this… None of this is like what I was told…"

It takes her a couple of minutes, but she finally regains her strength enough to speak again, with shaky words. "There is so much you just don't know, Edward." She sits up and reaches for a tissue, forcing herself to increase the control over her emotions once again, drawing them back under lock and key. "And you never cared to know any of it."

"Bella…" He shakes his head, mouth opening only to clamp shut again. He watches as she pulls open her drawer and pulls out a makeup bag to cover her sadness with powder.

"Just go," she whispers in a hoarse tone, while slathering some sort of cream under her puffy eyes. "I have a meeting with your sister's employer in under an hour, and I don't fucking need this right now."

The muscles in his face clench. "No fucking way am I leaving after all of that!"

Frustration is evident on her features, but she continues to compose herself to just as she was before his arrival. "You had no problem doing it before." It's unfortunate how much Bella reminds me of poor Mr. Heathcliff.

"Stop it!" he growls, snatching the open compact mirror from her hands.

"Stop what?" she snaps back, yanking her mirror back from him childishly.

He takes a very deep breath and sits in the chair beside her, slowly removing the mirror to place gently on my table top. "Stop asking me to walk away," he responds, the tremor in his voice is unmistakable.

Her watery eyes stray to their clasped hands. She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and bites hard while struggling not to crumble.

Finally, she looks up at him and says, "Then stop walking away."

-x-

A/N: Thank you to my bestie—in fact everyone thank her because if not for her you would not have gotten most of the secrets to come out! BIG thank you to **mariahajile** and **mauigirl60** for being amazing beta's—they catch all my mistakes. Thank you sweet ladies!

Special shout out to **eddiebell69 **for waiting so patiently for this to update. ;)

Everyone go read Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: heatherarielle.

-x-


	7. 7 – Valentine Loos

**Challenge Number/Title:** #7 – Valentine Loos

**Date Posted:** March 13, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance

**Character Pairing:** Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** Write your entry based around this plot: trapped in the bathroom on Valentine's Day.

-x-

_I still recall the taste of your tears_

_Echoing your voice just like the ringing in my ears_

_My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore_

_Scraping through my head til I don't want to sleep anymore_

-x-

**SEVEN.**

"You get that fax from Ernie this morning?" Rose poked her head inside Bella's office.

"Uh..." She hesitated as the wheels began to turn inside her head. "Yeah, I did. Dead end, so I sent the files to Peter. Maybe he can figure it out."

Rosalie frowned and walked inside to sit. "What do you think is going to be inside those PDFs when you finally open them?"

Bella shrugged. After finding the password-protected PDF files saved inside a hidden folder named "Private" in Alice's laptop, and not knowing the passwords, she'd met a dead end. Truthfully, that was all due in large part to her meeting with Edward the day before.

"Are you sure you're all right? You've been acting weird since I got back from your dad's." Rose narrowed her eyes accusingly at the brunette across from her.

"I'm fine," Bella lied. "Just tired is all."

Rosalie saw right through her bullshit but decided to wait until Bella was ready to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her. If she'd learned anything over the course of their seven-year friendship, it was patience. No one could make Bella say or do anything until she was ready. Well, no one except for Edward Cullen, of course.

"Whatever. Don't forget my brother's flying in this afternoon, and he's going to stay in my room until he finds his own place. I'll be st—"

"Staying at Emmett's. Yeah, yeah. You told me like a thousand times already." Bella rolled her eyes. "Did you reschedule that meeting with Mr. Volturi?"

"You mean the meeting you _failed _to show up at yesterday? No, I haven't been able to get hold of him, and I don't blame him, either. What the hell were you thinking, Bella? You _never _forget those kinds of things. Maybe taking this case was a bad idea. You haven't been yourself at all, and no offense, babe, but you're really making us look bad."

"Ugh, I know." Bella grimaced shamefully. "Look, I'll explain everything to you later. I promise."

"Pinky promise?" Rose lifted a brow.

Bella managed a small smile. "Pinky promise." They each held up their pinkies and linked them together.

"Good. Now call your daughter before you forget."

"Look, I may be off my A-game, but I'm not going to forget to speak with my munchkin, all right?"

Rose snickered and exited the room.

Bella picked up her phone and called her dad's.

-x-

"What?" Bella scoffed as she stared down at the anomaly in her hand later that night.

A text message from one Edward Cullen.

_Hi. –E_

How the hell does one answer their ex-lover/estranged father of their child? And what was prompting him to send her a text message to begin with? Nothing truly significant happened the night before to warrant such a casual form of communication. In fact, it kind of pissed her off.

It was so typical of him! He had done that in high school and he was doing it now, acting like everything was okay and nothing had ever happened. So casual, so cool. So fucking cocky. It may have worked when she was a young and naïve lovesick teen, but now that she had priorities other than Edward, she was able to see it clearly.

_What do you want? –B_

She shot back angrily and stood from her desk to check the fax machine. The usual bullshit was there: cruise specials, spousal requested credit reports, and invoices for various bills. Most people dealt with electronic scans nowadays, so the number of faxes she received was minimal. No one really faxed things anymore.

She paused when the machine hummed to life and began printing an incoming fax. It was a handwritten note of some sort; short, scratchy scrawl that looked to be masculine but rushed and sloppy like a child. It was a single page and stuck as she tried to pull it out, ripping the page in two. The handwritten note was in her hand along with the top of what seemed to be a photograph. Pulling free the other half, she pressed them together over a nearby counter and felt her breath catch in her throat.

_3 words, 8 letters, 3 syllables, 5 vowels, 3 consonants, 2 nouns, one emotion, many meanings, a big lie, a rare truth…_

The photo was of Bella and Edward the night before after she'd awkwardly pulled her hand away from Edward's and told him she had to leave. He'd followed her to her car, and the picture must have been taken from inside one of the surrounding buildings. She guessed it was a second floor window based on the angle. Who the fuck was following her, and what was with the riddle?

Any normal person would have called the police and filed a report by that point. It was the right thing to do, the _safe_ thing. Seeing a photograph of herself taken without her consent or knowledge should have scared her. It should have sent her reeling with fear.

But instead, it just really pissed her off.

-x-

Rosalie was furious when Bella shared with her the fax that had come in. She was on her way with Emmett in tow, and they were going to stay the night until her brother arrived. Bella made sure to make up an excuse for Kate to stay longer with Charlie. She was almost sure he hadn't bought her shitty excuse about a girls' night out and needing an extra day for recovery afterward.

Bella didn't have girls' nights. She had maybe three friends who were girls, and two of them she could barely stand.

Sitting on her bed with Alice's laptop open in her lap, Bella scrolled through Alice's files and folders until she got to her desired destination.

Seventeen locked PDF files named by month then year. Thirteen from the same year. Eight saved on the same day.

But only _three_ file names stuck out.

February 2006. March 2006. December 2006.

"Here goes nothing," Bella uttered to herself from inside her empty office.

One of Bella's many contacts, Peter, had come through in spades. He not only broke the codes on all the PDF files, but he found three hidden emails. His computer hacking skills put Bella's intermediate abilities to sheer shame. It didn't help that he wanted a date instead of payment, which she did not agree to. Yet, he never stopped asking.

Her mouse hovered over the file titled "February 14, 2006". It took her a few unnecessary beats before she could actually double-click it open, but she did. Up popped what looked like scanned copies of a diary—_Alice's diary_.

"Why would you scan your diary, Alice?" Bella asked aloud. She scrolled through over 80 pages before she paused at February 14th and gulped.

_February 14, 2006._

_Dear Diary,_

_Well, it's Valentine's Day. But instead of candy hearts and red roses, today I realized that he will never see me the same way I see him. I've known him for what feels like all my life, and it's the reason that he won't see me as anything other than a child, a "little sister" or whatever. I hate when he calls me that. I don't want to be his little sister. I want to be so much more than that. _

_I think he has a thing for Bella. I know it sounds ridiculous because I know she's insanely in love with my brother, but when she's not with Edward, she's with him. It's like they gravitate toward each other without even knowing it. The first time I saw them together, I thought they were a couple until Edward called out her name and she came running over to throw herself into his arms. Then he turned to me and said, "Alice, this is my Bella." _

"_I'm his Bella." She grinned up at my brother, and when he leaned down to kiss her, I almost barfed._

_I never doubted them. I still don't. But that doesn't make me feel any better, because even if she doesn't return his feelings, it doesn't stop that fact that he DOES have feelings… for her. _

_I tried to tell him today how I felt. Oh, my God, I was so nervous that I almost threw up on his shoes. But then Edward — why is Edward always in the way? — shouted for him to go to practice, and he patted my head and left. "Tell me later, little sister!" he called back as he jogged toward the baseball field._

_But I didn't tell him later. Because after practice, he jumped in the car with Rosalie and they took off together with wide smiles and bright blue eyes. I hate how beautiful she is. Everyone wants to either be her or do her. It's the same with Bella, although no one will ever admit that because Edward is such a jealous baby. _

_So that brings me here to this moment. I'm locked inside the bathroom, because I don't want anyone to see me cry… even though they already have. Now they won't stop banging on the door, and it's getting really, really annoying. If I open this door, they'll know I'm crying and then ask why, and I'll have to tell the truth. I can't tell the truth. Edward would never let it happen, even if I was somehow able to be with who I wanted. Edward would NEVER allow it. They're freaking best friends. I know he has a reputation, and that's why Edward would rather walk across hot burning coals than let us date._

_Ugh. Now Bella is asking to come in. I don't want to let her in, because I can barely look at her face without wanting to slap her. She has the love of the man that I want. He looks at her the way I want him to look at me. What a horrible thing to think about someone who has been nothing but nice to me. I could never actually hit Bella. It'd be like kicking a kitten. _

_Ugh. I'm just going to let her in and hope it makes everyone leave me the hell alone. _

_Be back later, Diary. _

-x-

Bella blinks at the screen a few times in silent shock.

She had no idea Alice had felt such animosity toward her, and for what? Because she hung around the boy Alice had a crush on? Who was this boy? Who would Edward never allow her to date? Jesus, please don't let it have been Royce. But for it to _have_ been Royce would make so much sense.

Bella frowned as she remembered that day and tried to piece together her side with Alice's…

-x-

_Baseball practice lasted longer than usual that day, and even though it wasn't Edward's fault, it kind of pissed Bella off. They had reservations in Port Angeles, and now they were going to miss them. Sometimes — especially as of late — Bella wondered where exactly in Edward's long list of priorities she actually landed. _

_He played three different sports — two of which he was captain of — was Senior Class President, had all AP course classes, and was the most popular boy in school, which meant he was invited to just about anything and everything. And he _always _dragged Bella along with him. It was endearing at first, but as soon as Bella realized how fake everyone was, she changed her mind. Because whenever Edward's back was turned, the smiles turned to scowls. _

_Not that she'd ever admit any of this to Edward. He didn't need the added stress to his ever-busy lifestyle. Bella didn't want to be yet another complication. So she kept the smile on her face even when the girls at school mocked her or when Royce made inappropriate comments_

"_Oh, shit, babe. I'm so glad you're here," Edward said the moment he opened the front door. "Come on. I need you upstairs." His fingers wrapped around her wrist and tugged sharply. _

"_Ow, Edward!" Bella cringed as he dragged her up the winding staircase. "What the hell?" She pulled away when they arrived on the second floor to rub her aching shoulder. _

"_Oh." Edward's eyes softened in remorse. "I'm sorry, baby." Immediately he pulled her into a tight hug, his lips pressing against her temple. "I didn't mean to hurt you, okay? I just needed to get you up here."_

_Bella nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah. Okay, what happened?" _

_Her eyes raised and saw Royce leaning against the closed bathroom door. "Esme said Alice came home in tears and locked herself in here. We just got here a few minutes ago, and she won't let us in."_

_His gaze pierced her from behind Edward's back, his appraisal of her chosen Valentine's Day attire making her feel cheap. _

_Her hands bunched up the front of Edward's practice jersey. "Has she said anything at all?" _

"_No. Nothing," Royce replied without looking away from her. _

"_I was asking _Edward_." Bella's spiteful tone made the corner of his mouth perk up. _

"_And I was answering for him," Royce shot back. _

_Edward tensed. "What is it with you two lately? Whatever it is, just drop it already. My sister is bawling her eyes out right now inside the fucking bathroom!" _

"_You're right." Bella ran her hands up and down his chest affectionately. "Why don't you go clean up, and I'll try to get Alice to let me in? Hopefully, by the time you're ready, everything will be okay and we can salvage what's left of today." _

_Confusion clouded his eyes until he finally caught sight of her dress. "Oh, fuck." He slapped a hand against his forehead. "I completely forgot about dinner tonight." _

_Bella forced herself not to react. She understood, or so she had told herself repeatedly. He was busy with baseball practice. No harm done. He did still have a dozen red roses delivered to her during second period — right in front of Tanya Denali who openly threw herself at Edward any chance she got. _

"_It's fine." She lifted a shoulder and darted her gaze down at her little red dress and black pumps she'd borrowed from Rosalie. _

"_It's _not_ fine," Edward grimaced. "I'll make it up to to you, Bella. I promise." His hands cradled her face._

_Her hands rested over his gently. "Okay."_

"_Yeah?" His eyes searched hers for any trace of doubt. _

"_Just go take a shower. You smell horrible," she smirked. _

_Edward gasped in mock offense and proceeded to rub his face all over her neck and chest as she giggled and fought him away playfully. Only when she gave him a good shove did he leave for the shower, leaving her alone in the hall with Royce. _

_The smile on her face instantly wiped clean just then. _

"_Did you get my candygram in second period? I left a special message inside for you." His smirk made her stomach clench._

_She hated when he stared at her like that, like he wanted to press her against the wall and rip off her clothes. She knew it was on his mind, because he'd hissed it into her ear several times before whenever it had been just the two of them and Edward wasn't in the room. She never said anything, because Royce had dangled one thing over her head that kept her mouth clamped shut. _

_He knew how to find her mother. _

"_Alice, sweetie? Can you let me in?" Bella turned away from Royce and knocked lightly on the bathroom door. She inwardly thanked God when the inside lock unlatched shortly after. She quickly slipped inside and relocked the door before sliding down the wall to sit beside the clawfoot tub Alice was sitting in, her arms around her knees. _

"_Want to tell me what happened?" Bella reached out to move the curtain of hair away from Alice's tear-streaked face. _

_The action caused Alice to shrink away. "Nothing you can help me with," was her mumbled reply. _

"_How do you know that? You haven't even told me yet." Bella playfully nudged her. _

_Alice snorted and sat upright. "How do I know? Okay, let's see if you can help me then. I'm in love with a guy who doesn't know I exist as anything other than a little sister. How about that? How can you possibly help me with _that?" _she snapped. _

_Surprised by Alice's outburst, Bella's brow furrowed with apprehension. "Well…" She paused and chewed her lip. "I'm guessing he's older than you?"_

_Alice nodded. _

"_Sophomore?" Bella guessed. _

"_No. Senior." _

"_Hmm…" She contemplated what to say next. "Do I know him?" _

_A snort was her response. _

_Bella's brow rose curiously. "Is that a yes?" _

"_Yeah. You know him. But before you ask me who it is, you can forget it. I'm not going to tell you, because it doesn't matter. He'll never see me the way I want him to, and even if he did, Edward would never allow it." Alice sighed deeply and set her chin on her knees once more. _

_Her distress pulled at Bella's heartstrings. Scooting closer, she replied, "Do you want me to talk to your brother? Well, first I'd need to know if this guy you like is a good guy before I try to work my magic." She cracked her knuckles. _

_It pulled only the smallest of smiles from Alice's lips. "Thanks, but no thanks, Bella. You can't make someone love you." _

_Those words from her mouth stopped Bella cold. Her words could not have been truer. There was a candygram at the bottom of the garbage can outside her second period class to prove it._

_A gentle knock interrupted their thoughts. "You okay in there, Ally?" Royce asked softly. _

"_Yeah." Alice closed her eyes and brushed away a new set of quiet tears. "I'm fine. I just need some time to myself," she called out, looking at Bella. "I'll be okay. Thanks for trying, though. It was really nice of you." _

"_I didn't say it to be nice, Alice. I care about you, sweetie. If you're sad, I'm sad." Bella hooked an arm around Alice and pulled her to the side of the tub to hug her. "I'm here whenever you're ready to talk about this guy of yours." _

_Alice nodded, and her silence was Bella's cue to leave. She slipped outside and closed the door gently behind her. It was so weird to see Alice as anything but cheerful, almost sacrilegious even. Bella swore to herself to talk to Esme about Alice tomorrow after Edward's game. _

_She checked her cell for missed text messages from her friends and paused when she felt heat at her back. The familiar scent of Ralph Lauren tickled her nose, and a smile broke out across her face just as she spun around to circle her hands around Edward's neck. "You know what that smell does to m—ah!" she screamed and shoved him away from her in horror. "What the hell, Roy?" she snapped. _

"_What?" he asked innocently. "I was just walking. You're the one who attacked me." _

"_Why are you wearing Edward's cologne?" she grimaced in disgust. He'd tainted what was once one of her favorite smells. "And you were not just walking. You were _hovering_." _

_He shrugged nonchalantly. "So?"_

"_So?" she scoffed incredulously. "It's completely inappropriate!" _

_Royce laughed. "Inappropriate? No, my darling. That's not inappropriate." He stepped closer — too close. "This…" he hissed as his hands grabbed onto her waist and heaved her up against the nearest wall, "…is inappropriate. Although in your case…" his nose skimmed up the side of her face and down to her neck. "Does it still count as inappropriate against _whores _like you?" _

_Tears stung her eyes. She pressed her hands to his chest and shoved him hard. "Don't touch me!" She slapped his oncoming hands away. "We talked about this, Royce. Your constant harassment against me has got to stop! I'm with Edward. How can I make it any clearer that I _love _him!" _

"_Love?" Roy spat out the word like a bad taste. "Does your definition of love include cheating on your boyfriend behind his back?" he taunted her menacingly. _

"_It was one kiss, and I was drunk. I told Edward about it right after it happened. He and I weren't even dating at the time! We were friends, but I loved him then like I love him now. Why can't you just forget it ever happened?" she begged him, cringing away from him when he moved forward. _

_He shook his head at her. "You felt it that night. It was there in that room with you and me, and if my fucking phone hadn't gone off—"_

"_You were dating Rosalie!" Bella shouted at him angrily. "I was in that room looking for my coat, and all of a sudden, there you were! You kissed me before I could react! I was so stunned, I couldn't think straight!" Her hands dove into her hair and pulled. "It was a mistake. You misread our playful banter that night. It was Spin the Bottle, Royce. It was one quick, open-mouthed kiss, and it did _not _mean 'Come follow me into the next room and assault me!'" _

"_You're such a liar!" His laugh was dubious. "If Edward didn't exist, you and I would be together right now. Tell me it's not true. Tell me." _

_She gulped nervously and stared him in his eyes. "No, Royce. We wouldn't. I don't feel like that for y—"_

"_Bull. Shit," he growled, his nose an inch away from hers. _

"_Believe what you want. I don't care. I don't love you, Royce. Get that through your head. I love Edward!" She pushed him away and brushed past him toward Edward's room. _

"_For now," Royce called out after her. _

_She rushed to Edward's door and flung it open just in time to see Edward pulling out her Valentine gift from beneath his bed. _

"_Ah, I was going to surprise you!" he frowned._

_She threw herself at him and kissed him. "I love you."_

"_Not as much as I love you." He wiggled his brows and leaned in to kiss her again. _

-x-

Bile threatened to coat her throat as the memory of Royce's constant, vile behavior came back with a vengeance. She'd known his confessions were completely full of shit. He hadn't wanted her at all. He'd just wanted to fuck with her. His unreasonable hatred toward her only started once she and Edward made their relationship official.

She had never understood why that was. They'd shared one stupid kiss during a drunken game of Spin the Bottle. Edward had been five feet away and would have probably been the one the bottle landed on had he not sent Edward to grab more beers.

It almost seemed as if Royce was always doing things like that; interrupting a conversation Edward started, dominating a room once he'd entered it, flirting incessantly with any girl who tried to hit on Edward. She used to think it was for her benefit, because he _used _to be a nice guy. They _used _to be friends.

Her suspicions of his odd behavior only grew stronger after that particular Valentine's Day. If she'd had to pinpoint where her life had begun to turn to shit, it would have been somewhere during that time period; perhaps that night at Rosalie's house after a victorious baseball game. Stupid bottle. Stupid game.

Bella slapped the laptop closed and placed it on her nightstand. She couldn't bear to read anymore, not when it dredged up so many unwanted memories. She picked up her phone and was going to call Rosalie when she saw she had an unread text message. Finally, after several hours since Bella had first fired off her angry text… Edward replied.

_Call me when you see this. I believe someone is stalking me. –E_

-x-

_In this place it seems like such a shame_

_Though it all looks different now,_

_I know it's still the same_

_Everywhere I look you're all I see_

_Just a fading reminder of who I used to be_

**Something I Can Never Have, NIN Cover by Flyleaf**

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my bestie, you give me the best feedback! BIG thank you to **mariahajile** (who is weaning me off the hyphens, lol) and** mauigirl60** (who rewords things for me awesomely) for being amazing beta's! They catch all my mistakes. Thank you sweet ladies!

Everyone go read my bestie Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.


	8. 8 – Talk My Ear Off

Challenge Number/Title: #8 – Talk My Ear Off

Date Posted: March 18, 2013

Fandom: Twilight

Rating: M

Genre: AH, AU

Content Descriptors: Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance

Character Pairing: Edward/Bella

Prompt: Picture prompt. Write your entry based around a conversation taking place. Your entry should be mostly dialogue. Narrative is allowed but should not be the focus of the entry. There must be at least two people talking in this conversation.

-x-

"_I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason." _― Stanley Baldwin.

-x-

**EIGHT. **

"What do you mean you think someone is stalking you?" was the first thing out of Bella's mouth when Edward answered his phone.

"I got a letter today with a picture of me and you from senior prom," he replied, forcing himself to push down the uneasy feeling in his stomach. "It's torn down the middle, and when I piece it together, there's a message on the back."

Bella sat up straighter in her bed. "What does it say?"

"If I say 'Everything I tell you is a lie,' am I telling you the truth or a lie_?_" he read aloud to her. "But that's not what bothers me the most."

She could hear him gulp loudly. "What bothers you the most?" Bella asked.

He sighed. "The envelope was pushed under my hotel door for me to find this morning."

"And you're just telling me this now?" she scoffed incredulously.

"I had conference call meetings all morning with New York. I still have a job, you know. A life that I have to get back…" he stopped.

She cringed and licked her dry lips, forcing herself to show her best poker face. "Yes, I am well aware that you have a life to get back to, Edward. If this is such an inconvenience—"

"I didn't say that," he interrupted.

"You didn't have to." She remained impassive.

"I didn't mean anything by it. I don't even know why I said it."

Inwardly, she rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I don't care either way. Once I find Alice, you can go back on your merry way."

"No. I can't," he replied, aggravated. "I have a daughter here who needs to know who I am."

"And once again," she reminded him, "you have no right to barge into her life. You had your chance. You blew it."

"I didn't know about her, Bella!"

"Bullshit! Do I have to show you the signatures again?"

"I'm working on trying to figure that out. I would never — _never — _have done that, Bella. You have to believe that, if nothing else," he begged. "Since the day I stepped into your office, my life has turned into a giant mind-fuck. So excuse me if I don't go about doing things the right way. My sister is missing, my mom lied to me, I have no idea what the hell is up with Royce lately, and I just found out that I have a child!"

"Don't yell at me!"

"I want to know my daughter, Bella. _Please._"

Before responding, she heard the door downstairs open and Rosalie call out to her. "I have to go," she said to Edward quickly in an attempt to end their awkward conversation. "We'll talk about the picture tomorrow. I got something similar, too."

"What?" he shouted. "How could you not—"

"I have a life, too, you know! And priorities that are not all about _you!_" she snapped heatedly.

"If someone is stalking you, Isabella, I need to know. You should have told me." The remorse in his tone was palpable.

"Why?"

"Because you shouldn't be alone."

"Rosalie is here with her boyfriend, Emmett."

"I'm coming."

"No, you're not."

"I'm leaving now."

"Edward."

"Where is Katie?"

"With my dad."

"Good. I don't want her around while this shit is going on. It's bad enough with her having to deal with your choice of occupation."

"Hey, asshole! That _occupation_ puts a roof over my baby's head and food in her mouth every damned day! So fuck you, Mr. High-and-Mighty! You've known about her for _two weeks_. I've raised her going on _seven years!_"

"We'll talk about this when I get there."

"The hell we will! I dare you to knock on my door, Edward! Because I'll have Emmett knock you flat on your ass!"

"We'll see," he growled and ended the call.

"Emmett!" Bella shouted after tossing her phone onto the bed angrily.

-x-

"Thank you for agreeing to see me today, Your Honor." Bella flashed her best smile at the man seated behind a beautifully-crafted mahogany desk. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She stuck her hand out and shook hands with Alice's boss, Judge Aro Volturi.

"You as well, Ms. Swan. I understand you had a family emergency? How is your daughter's arm? Not broken after all, I hope?" he asked as he pulled back and settled into his high-backed executive chair.

Bella paused in confusion for just a second before common sense hit her. That must have been how Rosalie was able to set up a second meeting. "Oh, she's good! Yes, I apologize again for missing our meeting, Judge. As you can understand," she motioned to the picture frame of two little girls smiling, "when one gets a call from their child's school telling you that your child is hurt…" she trailed off, shaking her head and shared a knowing look with the judge.

A look that made the third person in the room burn with envy.

"Well, that's wonderful to hear, Ms. Swan."

"Bella, please." She grinned again and sat in one of the guest chairs.

"And… who may I ask is this gentleman? I'm sorry. I was under the impression that this would be more of a one-on-one, if I'm not mistaken?"

At that, Bella forced herself not to groan out loud in exasperation. "This is my associate, Mr. Cullen. He is actually related to Alice; her brother, to be exact."

"Mr. Cullen." He nodded a greeting and motioned for him to sit. "We're all sorry to hear about Alice and wish for her safe return."

"Thank you, Judge." Edward bowed his head and from his peripheral, caught the sight of Bella rolling her eyes. "I apologize for my unannounced visit, but as you must understand, I wished to be present with Ms. Swan during her questioning. Perhaps I could add a little insight myself?"

Bella felt her fingernails dig into her palms. He did not need to be with her, and the fact that he insisted just burned her hotter. He'd refused to allow her out of his sight and — _damn him _— Emmett had agreed, much to Bella's disappointment; not that she apparently had a say in her own life these days. Both Emmett and Rosalie had always been protective of Bella, but with the sudden addition of Edward's concern, it was nearly overwhelming.

"Very well, Mr. Cullen." Judge Volturi gave his consent and looked at Bella. "Please proceed, Bella. You have my full attention."

"Why don't we start with the last time you spoke with Alice?" Bella asked, pulling out a notebook, her pen poised in wait.

Edward's eyes flicked toward her long, bared legs as she crossed one over the other and mentally groaned at the way her black pencil skirt rested just above her knee. Hundreds of images flooded his mind right then, intimate and arousing. He pulled at his tie and cleared his throat, tearing his gaze away and up into the watchful eyes of the Judge.

_Oops._

"As I said to the police," Judge Volturi began, "Alice and I had gone out for lunch around noon to Japanese Gourmet at Pikes Place about a week before her disappearance."

"Did you often go out to lunch with Alice?"

"Yes, we tried to at least once a month, if that. I'm close friends with Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle and I both graduated from Harvard together. So it was usually the three of us who have lunch. That day, Carlisle was unable to attend at the last minute. She and I had lunch without him."

"And did you find anything odd that day in her behavior? Did she seem out of sorts in any way?"

"No, not particularly. Although, I will admit that she wasn't as animated as usual. I just assumed it was because of her second job. Late hours, that one. I had tried to convince her to quit, but she was determined to stick it through," he chuckled.

Bella and Edward blanched. It was out of character for Alice to apply for an internship at the courthouse to begin with, but _this_? It put her odd behavior on an entirely different level. Alice had _never _been known to do anything more than shop, party, or pamper herself.

"Second job?" Bella played it cool, not wanting to sound like it was too much of a surprise lest it set Judge Volturi on the defense.

"Yes, bartending somewhere downtown. Wolfpack or something of that nature. She made me promise not to tell anyone so it wouldn't affect her status in the office. I asked if she needed money, and her bubbly laughter was her reply. I'm sure Carlisle would have had an aneurysm had he known. The only reason I kept my promise to her was because she said she was quitting in…" he paused.

"In?" Bella leaned closer, as did Edward.

"In a week." Judge Volturi blinked.

-x-

"You should have asked more of him."

"You could have asked him questions, too. That's why you were there, right? You're not shadowing me, because you think I'm in danger and incapable of protecting myself. _Right_?" she hissed at him as they pushed past busy crowds outside the courthouse toward his rental.

His fingers slid around her wrist and jerked her to a stop. "You know, most women would find my protective behavior endearing."

Bella scowled and threw her hands up to shake free of his hold. "Good thing I'm nothing like 'most women' then," she replied with sarcasm before brushing past him and briskly walking toward the car.

Edward's quick feet caught up with her effortlessly. The woman was grating on his very last nerve to the point where he was ready to throw her over his shoulder and toss her inside the trunk. Her mouth was incessantly moving as she pushed and prodded his dwindling self-control.

"Is this how you intend to continue on with my sister's case? If so, then forget it. You're fired." He thrust her away from him angrily. "You flew out of that room just when you were finally getting somewhere, Isabella!"

"How dare you question my ability to handle your sister's case!" She whirled around to shout at him. "You might know your way around a courtroom, but when it comes to my line of work, you don't know dick! If you'd been paying attention, you would have noticed that he locked up after revealing his knowledge about the second job, as it was obviously not something he wanted to tell us. Leaving now on good terms is what we need to do in order to get more information from him in the future."

"How the hell do you figure that? He could be halfway across the country by then!"

"Do you trust me?" she blurted in the middle of his rant.

"I— You— We…"

"It's as simple as that, Edward. Do you trust me to handle your sister's case or not? Because if your answer is no, then we end this right here, right now. I will not have you hovering over my shoulder the entire time and criticizing everything I do. That is specifically the reason I work _alone,_" she huffed, running shaky fingers through her hair.

Edward stood before her, speechless.

Did he trust her? One week ago, his answer would have been a sworn oath of _NO_.

But as of three days ago? The hard line between yes and no had grown sketchy.

"Answer me, Edward!" Bella snapped him out of his reverie.

He groaned into his hands and rubbed at his tired eyes. "Define the word_ trust._" He looked up at her hesitantly. The way her face blanked out was discouraging, but when her eyes began to water, the answer he shot out of his mouth was, "Yes."

"Okay." She swallowed nervously and started for the car again.

He followed behind closely and fought the urge to touch her, to spin her around and stare deeply into her eyes to try and read any little part of her to figure out what was going through her mind right then. Because for him, he was borderline frantic; his palms were damp, his heart was hammering, his throat was tight, his head was spinning…

It all came to an abrupt halt when she swung around just outside the driver's side door of his rental and held out a hand. He blinked at her in confusion. "What?" he asked.

"Keys."

He scowled. "No way."

"You said you trusted me." Her fingers wiggled.

Slowly, he stepped forward and held the keys out only to snatch them back when she reached for them. "Don't think I forgot about the last time I trusted you behind the wheel," he teased her.

Her cheeks burned. "Shut up and give me the keys."

He did and rounded the front of the car to get to the passenger side. "Where are we going?" he asked as he buckled his seatbelt.

She grinned and gunned the engine. "Wolfpack, of course."

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my bestie—you give me the best feedback! BIG thank you to mariahajile and mauigirl60 for being amazing beta's—they catch all my mistakes. Thank you sweet ladies!

Everyone go read my bestie Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.


	9. 9 – Finish It With

**Challenge Number/Title:** #9 – Finish It With…

**Date Posted:** April 15, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Violence

**Character Pairing: **Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** You must include and finish this sentence somewhere in your entry: "You only live once, but _"

-x-

_The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember. -Unknown_

-x-

**NINE.**

It's a common mistake people make when they say that their lives flash before their eyes moments before death. For one, how could anyone possibly know what happens before death and be able to pass the information along? Near-death experiences are just that, _near_ death but not _dead_. People who died for a few minutes and came back to life - did that still count? Because to be dead is to never wake up. Ever again.

Bella had only a few seconds to wonder before reality set in, and instead of seeing her life, she saw only her daughter, Katie. But not as she was in the present. Instead, Bella found her mind reeling backward to the first time the two Swan women met face-to-face.

Sweaty and exhausted beyond belief, Bella would never forget how alive she felt the moment Katie's sobbing, wiggly body was placed against her heaving chest. She could remember feeling rejuvenated the instant they touched. She could remember the feel of Katie's trembling body as she screamed loudly under the bright lights in the delivery room. The image of Katie's red face was burned into Bella's mind forever, because when the little baby girl opened her eyes, Isabella Swan found her ultimate purpose. She remembered the words her father used to say to her when being a mother was most difficult. "_You only live once, but it's up to you what you do with it_."

So right then, as she stood in the smoke-filled bar, staring down the barrel of a newly-polished silver handgun, the only thing Bella saw was the moment she gave life instead of a kaleidoscope of her own vengeful past. When she heard the safety give way with a resounding _click_, she swore she could see her own heart's rapid beating from the outside of her chest.

"You know," a rough grunt pushed past her aggressor's full lips. "I asked myself so many times what I would do the next time I saw your face."

She gulped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

"What? No witty comment?" he snickered just before thrusting the gun under her chin and pressing hard enough to make her grit her teeth in pain. "Come on, little girl." His nose slipped up the side of her face so that his lips settled at her ear. "Make me laugh."

But there was nothing funny about their situation.

-x-

_**Two hours earlier…**_

Edward would never admit it out loud, but Bella's driving scared the ever-loving shit out of him. Her wild driving had escalated tremendously since high school. She cut corners, weaved through traffic, sped up when she should have slowed down, and had some sort of unnatural fascination with engaging in races with fast cars.

He thanked God they were in a rental and not his own precious Audi back in New York, as he groaned into his window after taking a deep breath. "How much farther until we're at this bar Alice supposedly worked at?"

"Not much. I've been there once before."

His interest peaked, and he twisted to see her face. "Have you?"

She shrugged without looking away from the road.

"A case?" His brow lifted with his question.

Bella could only nod and an obvious tension formed in her posture.

"Would you like to elaborate?" He pushed.

"No, I would not. It was a long time ago and has no relevance to our purpose today." She flicked her hair over a shoulder. "When we get there, don't say anything. Let me do all the talking."

He fought to pull in his anger, hands fisted down at his sides, while he counted to ten on the inside. Three times.

"Could you maybe slow it down some? I'd like to keep my lunch _inside_, thank you very much." Edward found himself growling through gritted teeth.

"Don't be such a baby!" Bella rolled her eyes and purposely hit the gas to weave through traffic in order to make a yellow light. "I bet you still can't handle the little carnival rollercoasters, can you?" she snickered.

"That has nothing to do with it, Isabella. Your reckless driving concerns me in regard to our daughter," he hissed through gritted teeth and held onto his stomach.

"She is not _our _daughter," he thought he heard her mumble to herself as they sped down the highway.

"What are you mumbling over there?" he growled and rubbed his hands over his haggard face. Sleep had escaped him for yet another night, but being under the same roof as Bella had at least given him the most hours of uninterrupted sleep he'd had in weeks.

"I don't like to hear you refer to _my_ daughter as _ours_." Her eyes remained forward, hands still gripping the wheel. "I've been the one who was both mother _and _father for almost seven years now, Edward." She paused and hit her blinker for the next exit. "So when you say things like that and act like you've been there all along…" She took a deep calming breath. "Your sudden reappearance is not easy for me, Edward. I spent a really long time under the impression that you didn't want her."

"Listen, Bella, I need you to understand one thing. I'm not going anywhere now that I know about Kate. I'm going to be a part of her life for the rest of mine, and you're just going to have to accept that," he said in the calmest tone he could muster considering the untamed hellion beside him. "I'll take care to consider your feelings and hope you'll to do the same for mine." His eyes bore into the side of her face.

"_Your _feelings!" she snorted, mumbling sarcastically to herself while running a hand through her hair to break his gaze.

"I'm _trying _here, Bella," he begged. "This isn't going to work if you don't try, too."

"Hold on." She rolled her eyes and pulled into the back of the parking lot at a nearby McDonalds. "You want me to try, huh?" she scoffed as she turned off the car and turned in her seat, her whole body facing him.

At his nodded response, she continued. "Well, I don't feel like _you're_ trying at all! I feel like you're doing what you always do, Edward. You swoop in and try to take control of everything."

His fingernails dug deeper into his palms, anticipating the moment they sliced his flesh so that he could focus on anything but her. Yet it was pointless, because he watched her skin flush with a sickening fascination. Even though the blush was from anger and not lust, the very fact that _he _was the one to have caused that sweet ambrosia tint to snake up her collar to her cheeks… He closed his eyes and took a cavernous breath to calm himself.

"That's not what I'm doing," he said as calmly as his rising temper would allow.

Her head tilted, hair sliding down her shoulder and framing her face delicately. "Really, Edward?" she challenged him.

His eyes narrowed skeptically.

She shook her head. "So you haven't been following me around like a bodyguard?"

"No," he lied.

"Or judging my every move?" she shot back.

"No!"

"Or questioning my parenting since the very moment you found out about Kate?"

He sighed. "Bella, I—"

"Just shut up, Edward," she stopped him. "Just… Shut. Up." Her eyes closed as her head bowed in disappointment.

He really fucking hated the thin line between hot and cold he teetered on whenever he was with her. One second, he wanted to curl his hands around her throat and squeeze until that luscious mouth of hers fell open with her last breath. But at the same time, he also wanted to suck on those ruby lips while hammering in and out of her until she screamed and clawed at his back as he emptied himself inside her.

What the_ fuck _was wrong with him?

He'd had six - nearly seven - _years _to get over this girl! This woman. This… mother of his fucking bastard child.

"_Fuck!_" he shouted out into the car, causing Bella to jump in her seat and stare at him with wide eyes.

"What is your _problem?_" she snapped.

"Why is it so fucking hard to be around you?" he asked as if she would answer him. He gave her no chance to before her began to speak again. "My sister could be dead, and all I can think about is either killing you or fucking you! Seriously, what is _wrong_ with me?" His fingers dove into his hair and yanked at the roots violently. "What kind of man does that make me? What kind of… father? Shit, I'm a _father_! I still can't even process that! You have _no idea_ how all of this makes me feel!"

She pushed back from the wheel, hugging her arms around herself tightly as she stared outside her window. "I'm sorry, but right now, I can't find enough shits to give about how you _feel, _Edward."

"Excuse me?" he replied stunned.

"We can't work together under these conditions. There's too much history between us, too much we have to deal with." She shook her head while rubbing her face in frustration.

Edward pulled her hands down and away from her face. "Then let's deal with it and move on," he demanded impatiently.

"Oh," she rolled her eyes dramatically. "Because it's _that _simple!_"_

He took a moment to find patience and then took her hands again. "I know you resent the fact that I didn't believe what you said about Royce," he started to say, fingers tightening around hers when she began to pull away. "I'm still trying to understand everything. It just all keeps coming one after another, Isabella," he explained in a pleading tone. "You have to give me some time to take all this shit in and filter out what I know versus what you're now telling me."

"You believed him over me. End of story." She yanked her hands from his.

"What else was I supposed to think?" He shrugged and forced her by her chin to turn toward him again. "I _saw _you two with my own eyes! I don't care what you say, Bella. That moment is forever burned in my mind." He pressed two fingers to his temple with a deep frown. "Seeing you two on _my _bed? It fucked me up so bad."

Her head shook violently back and forth. "I just can't understand how you could ever think I would do that to you. After everything, Edward. Really?"

"You and Royce were acting so fucking weird, and then you started pushing me away." He paused to stare into her eyes. "I know about that night of the senior bonfire. I never said anything, because it didn't matter. It all made sense."

"You..." Her eyes watered. "You know about…" She felt sick.

"Yes." He nodded with eyes closed. "I know."

"How?" she croaked.

He set his gaze just over her shoulder toward the highway. "I went looking for you that night and Alice rushed up to me drunk and crying, telling me she wanted to go home. I said okay and went to look for you, but she wouldn't let me near the beach hut. She kept insisting we leave. She even said to leave without you, and I laughed because that was crazy. But then I saw you rush out of the hut looking like you were going to be sick; your hair was a mess, your face so red." He shook his head. "Your top wasn't even tied correctly. I didn't think anything of it, because Alice was clinging to me like she was going to die or something. So I started for the car. You were already headed that way, so I thought what the hell. I waved at the guys and took a step forward, and then…"

Bella gulped the bile that burned up her throat. "And then?"

"And then I saw Royce come out while zipping up his pants. He had no shirt on, and he looked like he'd just fucked Rosalie. He looked at me and nodded with his chin, a huge grin on his face. I kept trying to see if Rose was in there, but Alice yanked me forward." He continued to stare absently over her shoulder.

Bella remained silent.

"It wasn't until later that night after we dropped you off and were back home that Alice came into my room and said she saw you two together. I asked in what way, and she started to cry again. She said she hated you, because one was never good enough. She babbled about you being in the way, and when I asked what the fuck was wrong with her, she puked all over my fucking bed. I just told myself she was drunk. No way would you two do that. No fucking way."

"It wasn't… like that." She cringed and turned away from him.

"Then _tell _me," Edward begged. "I'm here, and I'm listening, Bella. I may be over six years too late, but… I'm here. Right now. I'm here."

She nodded. "I know you are, but I can't…" She wiped at her eyes that stung with tears. "I can't talk about it with you. It makes me feel dirty, and I hate myself for not being brave enough to just _tell _you when it mattered. I hate how much power I gave him over me — and for what? He couldn't even hold onto his end of the deal."

"What deal?" Edward prodded.

"I can't." She shook her head. "Not right now. Let's do this later, okay? _Please, _Edward. Don't make me tell you right now," she cried.

Edward inhaled through his nose and leaned back in his seat defeated. "If you don't tell me, then all I have is what I remember and what Alice said that night." He rolled his head to see her stunned face.

"That's just great," she snorted and slumped into her seat further. "I can only imagine what she said. Apparently she wasn't my biggest fan, which is sad because I thought we were friends."

He placed his hand over hers and sighed without looking at her. "There's a lot we didn't know about her."

Bella couldn't agree more. She thought about the diary entry she'd read about the exact night in question. She had been so angry and so wrong.

She was also completely clueless.

-x-

_May 7, 2006._

_Dear Diary,_

_He looked amazing last night behind that lit fire at the beach. The flames made his skin gold and his smile was so bright — the brightest I've ever seen it. He came with Rosalie a little after we got to the La Push and wore white and blue board shorts with no shirt. NO SHIRT! I thought I was going to die. When we made our way over to him, he winked at me and it took everything inside of me not to jump up and down like an idiot. He's so amazing. I just wish I could find a moment when he isn't with my brother. He's _always _with my brother. They're best friends. I get it. I do. But come ON! Cut the cord already! _

_I waited almost the entire night for him and Edward to split up. It didn't help that dear old Bella was up both their asses the entire time. My brother isn't funny, but she laughs like a hyena every time he attempts a joke. Her laughs were especially loud when _he _told jokes. At least those ones were actually funny. I laughed, but it was completely overshadowed by Bella. _

_I'm _always _overshadowed by Bella. _

_So they all break apart. Bella said she had to use the restroom and begged me to go with her. On the way over, she kept asking me if I was having a good time. I wanted to say no. I __**wanted**__ to say that maybe I would if she'd go home. What I can't stand most about Bella is that she has no fucking idea how pretty she is, and she's so fucking clueless when it comes to the attention guys give her. She acts like "one of the guys," and they love that about her. It makes girls like me look like high maintenance assholes. Thanks for that, Bella. Seriously. _

_I ditched her at the bathrooms and went looking for the only reason I was even at that party. But it was like he disappeared. He wasn't by Edward. He wasn't with Rosalie. He wasn't anywhere. So I backtracked, thinking that maybe he had to use the bathroom, too. That's when I heard them. _

_I saw his white and blue shorts under the cover of the moon and his upper body hidden by the shadows of the tent they stood in. I knew those abs, just like I knew that voice because it gave me shivers whenever I heard it. She was laughing, but you could tell she didn't find whatever he'd said very funny. He told her she was being paranoid. She told him he needed to be more careful, that people would see them. He whispered something, and she kept playfully batting him away and telling him to stop. He laughed, and I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get out of there. Why would she do this to me? To EDWARD? She knew how I felt about him. I may not have ever said his name, but she knew. I know she knew. And Edward. Poor Edward. My poor idiot brother and his stupid slut of a girlfriend. _

_Shit. I'm crying again. I'll write more later. I still can't believe Edward didn't dump her skeezy ass last night. He's so whipped, it's disgustingly sad. Maybe he can forgive her, but I'm done. I hate Bella Swan, and it will be a cold day in hell before I allow her to make my naïve brother look stupid again. I thought I was above using my charm to get what I want, because I was so sure he liked me for _me_. But apparently, he likes sluts. _

_I'll make them both pay. _

-x-

Edward hated waiting. It made him feel useless, and as a man, he couldn't bear the idea of not being needed, especially when the person who insisted she did not require his assistance was Bella. Parked in a shitty part of town beside an even shittier hole-in-the-wall bar, Edward forced himself to remain calm.

She could handle things on her own. She was fully capable. She had to be. Look how far she'd come in her career. She was ranked among the top three PI agencies in the city.

Regardless, there was an instinct inside of his brain that gnawed away at him to the point of psychosis. It was powerful enough to have him shoot outside to the trunk where he grabbed what he needed and tucked it all away unseen. Whatever the hell it was that was ringing bells inside of his head was also telling him to be prepared. For what? He had no idea. But it was enough to push his feet forward toward the side of the bar and not the front.

Enough to have eager fingers curl around cold steel.

-x-

"Come on, little girl." His nose slipped up the side of her face so that his lips settled at her ear. "Make me laugh."

She coughed and pulled away from his rancid breath. "You're such a piece of shit, Black."

His grip tightened around her arm painfully. "And you're still a cold manipulative bitch, _Swan_." She grit her teeth when he emphasized her name as his hand went from her arm to her throat, the gun from her chin to her forehead. "After everything you did, I can't believe you thought you could waltz up in here and try to boss my boys around!" he snorted.

"Old habits," she choked through his grasp.

He chuckled. "You know my family still won't talk to me? It's like I'm dead to them. Do you know what it's like to be dead to your family, Swan?"

She closed her eyes and struggled to breathe through her nose as the barrel of the gun dug deeper into her skin.

"You will. Maybe not in the same sense as me, but you get where I'm going with this." His laugh was nauseating.

"You won't kill me," she bluffed. "You're stupid but not _that _stupid. My dad's a fucking cop, you idiot. You think this won't be one of the _first _places he looks when I go missing? I have a list of every single potential enemy stapled to my ID records." She paused when she saw a flash out of the corner of her eye.

"I can handle the cage, Swan. Been there, done that. But I swore the only way I was going back was if I had the divine pleasure of taking your smug ass out first." He pulled the gun away from her head and released her throat. "We could have been something special, Swan. Your brains, my brawn." He shrugged. "But you threw that all away when you fucked me over and threw me to the Feds."

Bella stood as tall as she could and feigned as much bravado as possible given the fact that her knees were shaking so hard that they threatened to collapse. "What did you expect, Jake?" she scoffed, rubbing at her sore neck and inhaling deep breaths of air. "Your wife came to me in tears. She actually loved you despite all your faults. Your lying, your drug trafficking… She even looked the other way when you cheated on her the _first _time, but you just couldn't keep it in your pants."

"And you just couldn't help but stick your nose up in my business. Do you get off on that shit? Breaking up marriages, digging deep for shit that has no place in the light? You ruined my life!" he yelled in her face, surging forward to press the gun under her chin once again. "But even that wasn't good enough for you or her was it? She tipped the Feds, and they ransacked my whole bar to the point where it looked like a fucking tornado hit!"

She cringed, gritting her teeth as his face neared hers.

"Because of you…" He trailed the firearm up and down the side of her face. "I had to smother her with a pillow. No one screws me over. Especially pussy."

The image of Emily Black's face crossed Bella's mind and caused a pain in her chest at the loss. They'd become friends of some sort after the events of the case died down. Every few weeks, they met up for lunch or sent an email here and there. The lack of contact now made so much since to her. She'd been happy to set her free from the likes of Jacob Black.

Now she realized it had all been for nothing.

"I hope you rot in hell." Her disgust was clearly heard in her tone.

"I'll meet you there," he sneered.

A slight movement from the side of the bar drained the blood from her face. _No! Run!_ She wanted to scream at Edward's stealth approach. She willed her eyes to say what her mouth could not before her gaze locked on the other three threats in the room. Two of Jake's thugs flanked his stance, one on each side, arms crossed over broad chests and eyes piercing her like wolves in a sheep's den.

"Any last words, Swan?" Jake's hateful gaze bore into her like hot coals. "Nothing? That's fine. Open your mouth wide for me, baby." He pressed the barrel at her lips.

"Fuck you," she hissed and spat in his face, taking the moment of surprise to stab the point of her heel into his instep. Her actions timed perfectly with the exact moment Edward brought down the heaviest end of his gun on top of the head of one of the thugs, bringing him down like a ton of bricks.

"_Fuck!_" Jake cursed loudly from the pain in his foot. "You fucking—" She gave him no time to respond. Aiming at his nose with the heel of her palm, she jabbed upward for a blow that bent him over while he clutched his bleeding face.

"Don't even think about it." Edward whirled around to point his gun at the last man standing. "I'll blow your fucking head off." The guy threw his empty hands up in the air.

Bella kicked Jake's fallen gun across the room and swung her foot out to connect with his gut. "You killed Emily!" She kicked him for a second time. "You tried to kill me!" she shouted emotionally. "How dare you?!" she cried tearfully. "How dare you?!" She reeled her foot back for another blow to his stomach.

"Bella!" Edward shouted. "Bella, stop!" He reached out to wrap his arm around her waist, his other hand still pointed at his target. "Stop, baby It's over," he said into her ear, taking her weight when she slumped into his chest.

"I'm okay," she replied after taking a few seconds to compose herself. When he released her, she slowly walked across the room and picked up Jake's gun. Wiping away any remaining tears from her face, she straightened her shoulders and aimed directly at Jake's bruised face. "Get up," she snapped. "On your knees."

Jake had no choice but to obey.

"Bella…" Edward took a step toward her but refused to lose sight of the man before him.

She ignored his warning and glared at Jake. "Open your mouth wide, baby." She raised the gun toward his mouth.

"Bella!" Edward shouted in a panic, fearful of the dead look in her eyes.

Instead of firing, she pulled back and whipped the gun across his face as hard as she possibly could. She felt only minimal satisfaction when he hit the floor unconscious. She turned to the man in front of Edward, stalked forward and shoved him into a chair.

"You will sit here, and you will answer any and all questions I have about Alice Cullen," she informed him mercilessly. "My patience is worn thin, so don't even try to fuck with me."

He nodded his head vigorously.

Edward felt sick to his stomach as he watched her interrogate the man ruthlessly. She wasn't his Bella anymore. That was for sure. She would never have run into a bar filled with criminals or have guns pointed in her face. She would never have resorted to violence at all. In fact, she'd avoided it at all costs.

He had no fucking clue as to who this woman was. It terrified him to see her that way and wondered if any part of it was because of him. The man sputtered and answered all of her questions but didn't know anything useful to them.

Before Bella's temper could reach the point of no return, Edward stepped forward and took her by the wrist. "Enough," he whispered into the shell of her ear. "He doesn't know anything. We'll come back next time with a warrant. We have reasonable evidence to question them all legally."

She turned her head to answer him, and when she did, their noses brushed against each other, yet neither one of them dared to step away. "And what evidence would that be?" Her breath was short against his lips.

"Look over my left shoulder," he breathed and swept the hair from her face so she could get a better look. "Above the bar, beside the wall of top shelf tequilas. You see that collage of photos?" He waited until she nodded, then added, "I saw it when I came in. Alice is in at least three of them, and she's hugged up on some guy I've never seen before."

Bella's breath caught.

Oh, shit.

-x-

**A/N:** Thank you to my bestie—you give me the best feedback! BIG thank you to mariahajile and mauigirl60 for being amazing beta's—they catch all my mistakes. Thank you sweet ladies—lots of hugs and kisses!

Everyone go read my bestie Londonstew's entry to the PTB challenge, she writes under the name: **heatherarielle**.

**SIDE NOTE: **I know a lot of you are wondering why I started a new story when TSB is not finished. Well, this fic is more of a learning experience more so than a fanfic. Every prompt is a challenge in itself so it is helping me to better my writing. I am horrible at writing in third person, this is helping me a lot.

Also, I recently joined a fic review site and would love if you guys would come visit us: **swansbookstore. blogspot. com**


	10. 10 – Rule Me Out

**Challenge Number/Title:** #10 – Rule Me Out…

**Date Posted:** July 24, 2013

**Fandom:** Twilight

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** AH, AU

**Content Descriptors:** Angst, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Violence

**Character Pairing: **Edward/Bella

**Prompt:** Somewhere in your entry, include a list of five rules your character has broken. All of the rules on your list do not have to be given at the same time, but you must "list or number" the rules off. The rules can be for anything but each rule must be similar in nature to each other.

-x-

_Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are. —Franklin D. Roosevelt_

-x-

**TEN.**

"Tell me again how this happened." Rosalie shook her head to clear the mental image of what Bella had just revealed to her.

Still biting her now swollen bottom lip, Bella's gaze shot down to her hands, which twisted in her bed sheets. "I told you already, like, seven times."

Rosalie snatched the sheets from Bella's hands and threw them off of the bed. "Yeah, you did. But you're lying to me. Now I want you to tell me the truth." She watched her friend shove away from the bed in frustration. "You can't just call me up, demand that I come over here, and then feed me a bunch of bullshit. I was in the middle of dinner with Emmett's parents, Bella, so this better be really fucking good."

"I know, I know!" Bella paced back and forth in front of the bed. "And I'm sorry about Emmett's parents. I really am. I didn't mean to make you look bad in front of them."

"It's fine. I told them you escaped from the psychiatric ward again." Her lips twitched in amusement.

Bella paused her gait to look back at Rosalie in offense. "Gee, thanks. As if they don't hate me enough already, Rose."

"They don't hate you. And will you please sit down? You're making me nervous!" Rosalie's hand yanked Bella back onto the bed. "Start talking, or I'll call Emmett."

"Ugh, _okay_." Bella buried her face in a pillow. "I bwokwukllnoive…"

"What?"

"I frugblin wokwukllnoive…" she groaned into the pillow again.

"Bella!" Rose pulled a strip her friend's hair harshly.

"Ow!" Bella shot up with a scowl.

"Then stop acting like this, and just tell me!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"I broke rule number five!" she screamed and then covered her mouth with both her hands, eyes wide as she stared back at Rosalie's shocked face.

"I'm sorry." Rose shook her head in complete and utter disbelief. "Say that again?"

"Please don't make me say it again," Bella whispered shamefully.

"But it's a _rule_," Rosalie said aloud, mostly to herself. "I thought, if anything, that was the one rule you'd _never_ break. I can't even…" She stood up and began to pace the floor where Bella had once been. "So let me get this straight," she spoke as if addressing a client. "You've decided to say screw the rules you've held together for the past seven years and… what? What the _hell _would make you break rule number five?"

Bella cringed. "Let me explain."

"Oh, please do. I'm sure I'm gonna love this." She sat at the end of the mattress and crossed her arms.

"I went to Wolfpack last night." She waited fro Rosalie's explosion, and boy, she did not disappoint.

"You _what? _Are you crazy, Bella? Did you bump your head? Suffer a psychotic break? Were you held at gunpoint?" She scolded and then gasped in realization after seeing the expression on her best friend's face. "Someone held a gun to your head? Are you fucking with me right now?"

"I wish I was." Her eyes closed in shame. "I don't know where my head was at. I was too cocky. I wanted to show Edward that I knew what I was doing, that I could take care of myself."

"A fat load of good that did!"

Bella cringed in shame. "I know, okay? I know."

Rose shook her head incredulously. "So if you broke rule number five, then I can already guess you broke rules one through four, as well." Her mouth set into a tight thin line.

At Bella's slight nod, Rose flung her arms out and collapsed against the couch cushions. "I give up on you."

"It's not like I broke them on purpose!" Bella shouted in defense. "They were made for a reason, and I've held onto them for seven years!"

"Exactly." Rosalie scolded. "So why now? Why does his mere presence send your entire house of cards crumbling down? How could you allow this to happen, Bella? I just don't get it. This is so unlike you."

"I know," was all she could say in reply.

Bella lived and breathed by a strict set of 10 rules. They were simple and to the point, and they were put in place to help her through a tough time in her life. But it was the first five that were crucial to the entire set. Five rules so effective that even after overcoming her hardship, she kept them in place like the Ten Commandments.

So of course, the moment Edward Cullen — the sole reason the rules were made — walked into her office, she'd slowly but surely broken each and every one.

Rule number one – _Never allow Edward Cullen back into your life ever again_ – was broken by force.

Rule number two – _Never forget your number one priority: Kate_ – was broken when she walked into Wolfpack unarmed and without proper backup.

Rule number three – _Never allow anyone to get the best of you_ – and four – _Never forget who you are and what you've accomplished to get there_ – were broken every time she argued with Edward.

But it was rule number five that wiped out all the others, because to break number five was to break them all. It erased what was left of her integrity, the trust she held upon herself. It was the worst betrayal, and the beginning of the end of who she'd worked so hard to become.

"Have you spoken to each other since…" Rose shrugged.

"No," Bella sighed. "And I'm really not looking forward to that conversation, either."

"I still can't believe you went into Wolkpack, Bella. Doing that was worse than breaking all of your rules combined. I don't understand why you want to prove yourself to a man who doesn't deserve it." Rose just couldn't wrap her head around Bella's sudden change in behavior. She'd been so strong for the past several years and to watch it all drain away so easily was a shame. A damn shame.

Upon the tears threatening to fall from her best friend's eyes, Rose scooted closer and pulled the now vulnerable Bella into her arms. "It's okay," she soothed. "You both went through something pretty scary. And with the history you two already share? Something like this was bound to happen."

Bella snuggled closer and clenched her eyes shut as if to block out the day's events. "It doesn't matter why. All that matters is that it happened, and it can't be undone."

"I'm so sorry, sweetie." Rose ran her fingers through Bella's hair comfortingly.

Rule number five: _Never have sex with Edward Cullen ever again_.

-x-

A/N: Gracias **mariahajile**! I completely forgot you beta'd this for me until I was cleaning out my inbox! Forgive? Thank you everyone who reads this, it's not something I devote myself to, but the fact that you read it means a lot to me. Hugs to you all.


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